A Wonderful Life, or Close Enough Anyway
by Mr. Unimportant
Summary: K plus for violence, a few bad words, and a bunch of randomly placed romance. COMfreakingPLETE! This is a story of Jack's life after marriage in the Valley. ...Okay, fine, being over 100,000 words, it spreads a bit beyond that. Read... NOW.
1. The Beginning, Duh

(This is my first (and so far my best) attempt at a fic, so if I'm forgetting or ignoring something deemed important, LEAVE ME ALONE! However, if you have any tips or constructive criticism, I'll take it into consideration. Anyway, on with the show!)

It was a silent Spring morning, and Jack was in his home, eating some breakfast with his red-haired teenage son, Miro. They were eating Fish Stew, which Miro was a bit hesitant about.

"Uh... Dad?" Miro begins.

"Yes?" Jack says, looking up from his food to him.

"Why don't we eat cereal like normal people?" Miro asks, prodding at the stew with his fork.

"Because," His father explains. "In my bachelor days, when I was giving out daily gifts to your mother, I found out that she actually liked this stuff. I'm too scared to have anything else, I don't want to take any chances."

"Oh, come on." Miro says, rolling his eyes. "Is Mom really that picky?"

"Yes." Jack says. "She hates flowers, candy, chocolate, wine, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, broaches, puppies, kittens, chibi plush dolls, Soft music, soft musical instruments, chibi plush puppies and kittens, hair products, skin products, cards, letters, and Johnny Depp- I FINALLY FOUND SOMETHING THAT SHE LIKES AND I'M NOT QUITTING ON IT!"

Miro was a bit startled at this outburst. He looks back at his stew.

"Well... I guess it's okay." He finally says. "Still, it's a bit weird for breakfast, isn't it?..."

"If you're so picky, I have some cereal in the basement storage." Jack says. "Go get it yourself."

"We have a basement?" Miro says.

"Yes. It's in a trapdoor under the mat in the living room." Jack explains. "Tons of stuff in there, too. Even a jacuzzi. We don't want the neighbors using it so we hid it. We had some good times... Hey, do you remember asking me when you were little, if your mother and I ever had a bath together?"

Miro suddenly becomes very pale and nervous. His eyebrow twitched and he swallowed.

"...Unfortunately, yes..." He says.

"Well," Jack continues. "Let's just say that if you ever wondered where you came from-"

"LALALALALALALALALA!!!" Miro yells loudly, plugging his ears. "UNWANTED INFORMATION!!!" He runs out the room, yelling loudly and finding the trapdoor to the basement.

Jack smiles to himself. "I've been wanting to do that for years." He chuckles, taking a sip from his glass of milk.

Miro, meanwhile, was climbing down a deep stairwell, still shaking his head in an attempt to flush the image from his mind. He finally finds a door at the end of the stairs and opens it, revealing a small room with another door in it. There was no need to open that door, the pantry was in this room. He had some idea of what was behind that door, anyway. Nothing he was interested in exploring at the moment.

The basement was very dark, and Miro could only barely see his way to the pantry shelf. He pushes away a curtain covering the shelves and comes face to face with dozens of glowing, red eyes.

Meanwhile, Jack was just finishing up his stew when he heard the door outside open.

"Oh, she's back from her walk." He says to himself. He sees the door to the kitchen open and Nami steps in, wearing her usual vest and pants and with her uasual mellow look on her face.

"The trapdoor's open." She says immediately. "You didn't-?"

"Don't worry." Jack reassures her. "The jacuzzi's still a family secret, no ugly, sweaty, smelly neighbors down there using it. It's just Miro."

"Oh, that's good." Nami says, not taking a seat but leaning against the wall. "What's he doing down there?"

"He wanted cereal for breakfast." Jack explains. "I told him to get it."

"Ah," Nami says. "Oh, and... I'm not sure, but I thought I heard scratching down in the basement. It could be infested."

"I haven't heard anything." Jack says. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

Just then, a massive crash is heard, and Miro is seen being flung from the trapdoor and into the wall opposite, right next to the open kitchen door. He falls face-first to the ground with a resounding THUD.

"You were saying?" Nami says, smirking.

Miro pulls himself slowly from the floor, dazed by the concussion. He stumbles slightly but regains his balance by clinging to the wall. He pauses for a few seconds, trying to regain his bearings.

"WE HAVE A PROBLEM." He finally says, suddenly losing his grip on the wall and falling back to the floor in an ungraceful heap.

"Oh, really? I didn't notice." Nami says sarcastically.

"Okay, I get the message!" Jack says in frustration. "I was wrong-"

"Again." Nami adds. Jack ignores it and continues.

"And you were right-"

"Again." Miro says along with Nami, despite having half of his sense knocked out of him.

Jack growls, but manages to contain himself.

"We don't have much time..." Miro says, staggering up to his feet and gripping the doorknob to keep his balance.

"What makes you say that?" Jack asks. "They're not going anywhere, and there's probably not many of them."

"THERE'S A LOT OF THEM!" Miro yells. Suddenly, the sound of thumping is heard. Miro takes action and staggers to the trapdoor, shutting the lid and sitting/collapsing down on it. A series of thuds is heard beneath Miro and the trapdoor is bumped up slightly every time.

"THERE'S A HELL OF A LOT OF THEM!" Miro adds to what he previously said.

Jack and Nami leave the kitchen to get a better view of the situation.

"What are they, and how many is 'a lot', anyway?" Jack asks.

"Mice," Miro says. "And I'm not sure how many, but it's plenty, trust me! I think that the whole bunch of them is being led by three old blind ones!"

"...What does that remind me of?" Jack says, scratching his chin.

"I dunno!" Miro says, interrupted by another hard thump. "The leaders are blind, but you should see how they run!"

An idea suddenly came to Nami's head. She turns to look at Jack.

"Jack, you're a farmer, right?" She says.

"Jee, I hope so." Jack says wonderingly. "Or I might be in trouble for being here for nearly fifteen years."

Nami hit Jack across the face. "Cut the stupid act, yes or no?" She demands.

"Yes." Jack says immediately. "But what does-?"

"What would that make me?" Nami interrupts.

"That would make you... I dunno." Jack says. Nami growls in frustration, raising her hand again.

"Uhh..." Jack says, frantically trying to think. "Uh, the farmer's wife?" He finally says, bracing himself to be hit.

Nami lowers her hand and nods. "Exactly."

Jack sighs in relief.

"So, what's that going to help us with?" He asks.

"I get it!" Miro cuts in, the thumping now quite constant and Miro only barely keeping his balance on the trapdoor. "Mom's the farmer's wife! She can deal with them!"

"I'm still not getting this..." Jack says, scratching his head.

"Read the nursery rhyme, Mr. Dense." Nami says, rolling her eyes. She reaches one hand into her pocket and draws out two large carving knives, putting one in each hand.

"You had those in there the whole time?" Miro says.

"Better safe than sorry." Nami replies. "Now get off of the door and stay out of the way while Mommy does some very brutal Spring cleaning."

Jack steps back as well, and Miro is just about to step off and run.

"You realize that that makes you Mrs. Dense, right?" Jack says, finally thinking up a comeback to Nami's insult. Nami only sighs, and goes over the list in her head of all the other people in the Valley, or the country, that she could've been with. Instead it was Jack that she fell for, and the worst part was, she had to admit that it could've been worse.

"Miro, now." She orders. Miro jumps from the trapdoor, but he was still slightly dizzy so he lands a bit awkwardly, stumbling and falling to the floor.

"That's from your side of the family." Nami states. She then turns her attention back to the trapdoor, which flew open, and a slew of mice skittered out, coming at Nami in a massive horde.

Jack and Miro could do nothing but watch and cringe at the next few moments of unbelievably brutal combat.

"Have you ever seen such a sight in your life?!" Jack says in amazement.

After the dust settled, Nami put away her knives, not a scratch on her. She had cut the tails off of at least thirty mice, including the leaders, and they all retreated out the doors and windows.

"Wow..." Jack says plainly. "I am... SO glad I married you!"

"Way to go, Mom!" Miro cheers.

"It's nothing." Nami says, picking up the strewn tails and throwing them into a trash can.

"I just wonder... why did they all come here? Why not infest Hardy's house or Murrey's hair or some other place where they'd be useful?"

"I don't know..." Jack says slowly.

"Who cares?" Miro says, shrugging it off. "The point is: They're gone, and we don't have to worry about something like this ever happening again."

At that time, in the closet of Miro's room, a faint melody could be heard. A music box, playing by itself, even though no one was there to wind it up. Beside it was the large, stuffed teddy bear Daachan, staring blankly forward like it always did. However, if only for a second, as the music box wound down, the faintest red glow could be seen in that bear's eyes. It faded quickly, though, and the music slowed to a stop.


	2. Miro's Day

(Okay, I got a few thumbs-up reviews so now I am glad present to you Chapter 2! If you want to see more chapters in the future, keep shoveling in those reviews!)

The day after those rather odd events, Miro decides to go outside and wander. After waking up, making an attempt to comb his hair, and practicing his teenage 'why should I care' look in the mirror, he opens the door of his bedroom and into the living room, where Jack was already about to go out to do his work.

"I'm heading out, Dad." Miro says as he walks to the door.

"Really?" Jack says in amazement. "Well that's a first, I'd better get the baby book out."

"Funny." Miro says tonelessly. He reaches the door and turns the handle.

"Why the sudden change of routine?" Jack persists.

"No reason." Miro replies, opening the door and beginning to step out.

"Is it because of Kaaaate?" Jack says mockingly. "Is that why you're so anxious to head out?"

Miro stops, and turns to look at Jack, narrowing his eyes. "What makes you say that?" He asks.

"Oh, nothing." Jack says innocently. "I just assumed-"

"You assumed wrong." Miro says defensively. "Kate's not worth my time."

"Jee, that's pretty cold, son." Jack says. "Especially considering that she's the only girl within 8 years of your age in this entire Valley."

"...Point taken." Miro says, putting a hand behind his head. "But, uhh... That's still not why I'm going."

"Then why are you going?" Jack persists, smirking.

"What? Can't a teenager go outside of his house and have it not involve school or girls?" Miro asks.

"Uhh, no." Jack says literally. Miro just sighs and shakes his head, walking out the door completely.

The sun was very bright that day. Miro shielded his eyes from the morning light and grumbled a bit. He wasn't used to seeing the sun at this angle, since he uasually stayed in the house until it was close to noon. Walking down the path from the farm, he decides to hang a left and go to the bridge. Once he had arrived, Miro walked to the edge of the bridge and spent a bit of time looking into the clear waters of the river. He felt relaxed, like the world was behind him, just staring into the simple waters and hearing the bubbling, soothing sounds of the stream lapping gently against the land as it went on its merry way to the deep, blue ocean...

"HI, MIRO!" Came a girl's voice from behind him. Miro gave a surprised shout and nearly lost his balance, just barely hanging on by a foot. To his misfortune, he felt a finger press against his back, and gently tip him over the side.

He landed with a loud splash, and after a bit of flailing, got a hold of the soreline. He looked up from the water to locate the idiot that pushed him.

"KATE!" He yells angrily, as he tries to get himself out of the water. Kate just laughed and walked across the bridge to the side of the shore where Miro was clinging to. When she reached the point where Miro was, she leaned over and looked down at him.

"Here, lemme help you out." She says, offering a hand.

"Hmph, whatever." Miro says, putting his 'why should I care' look to use. He takes Kate's hand and lets her help him out of the water.

"...You can let go now." Miro says after a pause. Kate just shakes her head and thrusts Miro back into the water with the same hand.

After another display of bad swimming skills, Miro clings to the shoreline again. This time he quicky pulls himself out of the water, though he really didn't have to since Kate was too busy laughing to offer her 'help' again. Miro glares at her, dripping wet.

"You're really twisted, you know." He says as calmly as his rage could allow.

"No, you're just gulliable." Kate says, finally getting out of her laughing bout. Miro was shaking in anger now, his fist tightly clenched.

"You're shivering? What, the water too cold for wittle Miro?" Kate taunts. "You need your bwankie?"

Miro had one eye twitching at this point. "Don't push it, Tommie."

Kate suddenly got a serious expression of her face. "What was that?" She asks in a angry tone.

"It's new slang I made up, it means tomboy." Miro explains.

"I'm not a tomboy!" Kate says angrily. "WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY THAT?"

"Let's see..." Miro says, coming up with a list in his mind. "Red eyes, look possessed, freckles, hair's weird- all in all, you're ugly."

Kate quickly walks to Miro and mashes into his face with her fist. Miro is thrown clear across the river and blacks out.

The first thought that came to Miro's mind when he regained consciousness later that day was 'Y'know, that was probably a stupid idea.' The second thought that came to his mind was 'Jee, I'm in a lot of pain right now.' He opens his eyes slowly and sees the sun directly above him. By that, he figured that he must've been out for about four hours. He looks around him to see where he landed. He was right next to Vesta's farm, on the pathway. He slowly gets up and cringes as he removes a rock that he landed badly on, and looks around himself again. Kate was nowhere to be seen, which he was happy for. Yet, in the very back of his mind, he was a little bit disappointed.

"So she just left me here? Hmph, I knew that she wasn't worth my time." He grumbles to himself. He then feels his face for a bruise, which was very present, and stung when he touched it even slightly. He then felt his forehead. There was paper attatched to it.

"What the...?" He says, taking the piece of paper off of himself. He sees writing on it. It says 'Check your reflection.'

"What's that supposed to mean?" He wonders. He decides to go along with it, though, and walks, still a bit imbalanced, over to the river's edge. He takes a look at himself, and lets out a terrified scream. He was covered in all manner of makeup; cherry lipstick, nail polish, eyeshadow, blush, powder, but most visible of all was a smear of lipstick right on the side of his face.

"Oh, Goddess, I hope she didn't apply that the way I think she applied it..." Miro says to himself. A second note then drops from his hair. Miro catches it and reads it. 'Yep.'

"Dammit!" Miro curses, throwing the note away. "I've been... face-contacted and I wasn't even AWAKE!" He then makes his best attempt to get all of the makeup off of his face by dunking his head in the water, wiping frantically with his hands and sleeves.

After about thirty minutes of this, Miro figured that he had the worst of it out, or at least he wouldn't be mistakened for a girl or a really weird guy at a distance. He sighs and gets up, wondering where he should go next.

"Well, the woods are probably more safe than around here." He says to himself. So he crosses the bridge, careful to stay in the middle, and walks up the forest path.

When he came deep into the forests, he saw a spring in front of him. The waters were very clean and mystical-looking, so he decides to walk closer. He kept going until he reached the very edge.

"This must've been what Dad was talking about..." He says to himself. "Of course, he also says that he sees little people when he eats the mushrooms around here, so..."

"HI, MIRO!"

(Splash)

"KATE!"

"Need a hand?"

(Splash)

"HOW DID I FALL FOR THAT TWICE?"

"You're gullible, remember?" Kate says, not even bothering to stifle her giggles.

Miro pulls himself from the water slowly, steaming in anger.

"Did you follow me or something?" He asks. "And why do you keep doing that?"

"No, I didn't follow you, and I do that because you get on my nerves." Kate says.

"How do I get on your nerves?!" Miro asks angrily. "You're the one who gave me a makeover!"

"You're the one who called me ugly." Kate says.

"You're the one who called me wittle Miro!"

"You called me twisted."

"You called me gullible! Twice!"

"You... damn." Kate finishes, not able to think of anything else. Miro smiles triumphantly.

They spend the next while sitting and talking, arguing about other things, and, at some points, actually having a good time. It almost didn't even seem to matter what they were talking about; stars, farming, whether or not Van could beat the Gourmet in a sumo wrestling competition, pretty much whatever came to mind. Before long, evening hit.

"Wow, it's this late already?" Miro says, noticing the sun.

"Yeah, I guess... Maybe you can come out early tomorrow, too?" Kate suggests nonchalantly.

Miro was about to say something when a rustle is heard in the nearby trees and bushes. He gets up off of the ground and looks to where he heard the noise.

"What was that?" He asks. Kate looks in that direction, too, and stands up.

"I don't know." She says. "Maybe we should... go, now."

At that moment, a dark cloud passed over the evening sun and blocked out almost all light. Another rustle is heard, and out from the bushes came something walking on two feet, or paws, with cute, round ears and two ominously glowing red eyes.

"Yeah, I think going would be a good idea." Miro agrees. They both take off, running down the path and being pursued slowly by the thing. Halfway down, Miro trips and lands hard on the ground. Kate turns back to look at him.

"Forget me, Kate, save yourself!" Miro says. "Go, run!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Kate says, immediately running down the path and out of sight.

"HEY!" Miro yells after her.

The thing came closer and closer to Miro with every step. Miro turned to see those eyes approaching him, still glowing ominously. Miro scrambles back to his feet. He knew that running was no longer an option. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his only weapon, a goat milker.

"Oh, man..." He mumbles. "This'll be some fight..."

The battle commenced. The creature suddenly lunges at Miro with a supernatural bound. Miro grabs the thing by it's fuzzy ears and wrestles it to the dirt path. After a long tussle on the ground, Miro manages to get on top of it and punches it across the face a few times. The thing was very soft, though, so it had almost no effect. The beast loosens itself from Miro's grip and lunges right at his face, getting on top of him and trying to smother him. Miro retaliates by reaching for his goat milker and, as he pulled the thing away from him with one hand, he shoves the milker on it's face with the other, immediately turning it on. The milker's suction stuck itself to the thing's face and, while it was busy with trying to remove it, Miro took the opportunity to run.

When Miro arrived at his house, he ran in and immediately slammed the door shut. Jack and Nami were in the living room at the time and what they saw was Miro, his clothes ruffled and dirty, out of breath, and still with a bit of lipstick on his face.

After a long, dead silence, Nami was the first to speak.

"...Uhh, how was your day?"

"Don't ask." Miro replies.


	3. The New and Scary Household Adventure

Another day later, the whole family sat at the table to eat a nice, hearty breakfast. Although, another reason is because the parents wanted to prod Miro about the events of the past day. Nami had beaten Jack in the rock- paper-scissors match earlier that morning, so she got to have the first shot.  
  
"Miro?" Nami begins, looking over to him in a manner far too sweet for her nature. Miro knew that he was in for it now.  
  
"Mm-hmm?" Miro replies, some food in his mouth at the time.  
  
"What were you doing out all day?" She asks. "That's not like you at all."  
  
"Nothing really." Miro replies, keeping his eyes to his food.  
  
"Then why did you come back home with your clothes messed up and lipstick on your face?" Jack cuts in. "That's a bit above 'nothing, really' on the scale."  
  
"Oh!" Miro says, looking relieved. "Well, that's a funny story, really. You see..." He proceeds to tell all of the events of the past day to his parents, attempting to mention Kate as little as possible. When he was finally done, Nami was the first to speak.  
  
"You were attacked?" She says.  
  
"Yeah." Miro replies. "It was something... hey, come to think of it, it was a lot like Daachan..."  
  
"I KNEW IT!" Jack exclaims triumphantly. "I knew that that thing was evil! And you said I was nuts!" He points to Nami.  
  
"Jack, Miro," Nami says calmly. "Think about what you're saying. Daachan is a teddy bear; a big, fuzzy, cotton-stuffed, bead-eyed, button-nosed, round- eared, hand-sewn, inanimate, brain-free, non-evil teddy bear. It's not alive."  
  
"But-" Both Miro and Jack start to say.  
  
"End of discussion." Nami says, cutting them off. "Now, we're having a town get-together this afternoon, I want you two washed and smelling nice for the occasion."  
  
"Awwww..." Jack and Miro whine.  
  
"Oh, stop it." Nami says. "Can't I have you two coming to a special occasion not smelling like the animals?"  
  
"But that's how people know that we're such successful farmers!" Jack points out. Miro nods.  
  
Nami growls deeply and gives them one of her soul-piercing glares. They go stone-still and sit rigid at their chairs for a moment.  
  
"...Going!" They both say after they recover, rushing towards the bathrooms.  
  
They stop for a moment at the doorway, both swallowing and glancing at each other.  
  
"Well, you're the father..." Miro says. "Off you go. You know that room better than I do"  
  
"No I don't, I've NEVER been in there!" Jack says, suddenly panicking. "Nami installed that room when I was asleep from the bachelor party hangover, I've never actually gone in..."  
  
"Well, be brave, Dad." Miro says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Better you than me, anyway."  
  
Jack cringes and nods. "Right. Listen, if I don't make it out... tell Nami... it's all her fault." He then opens the door slowly and slips in.  
  
Miro waited outside the door for a while. He had no idea how long. The minutes ticked by, and Miro couldn't hear anything from the bathroom. The doors were airtight and soundproof. Apparently, Nami was shy of people hearing bathroom noises. Miro kept himself busy by twiddling his thumbs, staring up at the ceiling in thought.  
  
Finally, Jack emerged from the room, running out, falling to the ground, and staying there, twitching once in a while. Miro looked at him.  
  
"You okay, Dad? ...Dad?" He says, prodding him.  
  
"Ugh... It was... horrible..." Jack says weakly. "Everything was shining... the walls, the sink, the toilet, the shower, EVERYTHING! Even the... friggin'... light switches..."  
  
"Stay with us, Dad!" Miro says. "Stay together! Don't go into the light!"  
  
"Miro..." Jack says. "You have to go in there... Do it for the family... Besides, at least you have a chance in there, Nami won't let you live if you return unwashed..."  
  
Miro nods slowly. "I see. Don't worry, I'll get out of there... ugh, clean." He gets up and turns to the door.  
  
"Miro..." Jack beckons. Miro turns around.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Don't... slip on... the soap..." Jack says finally, going completely limp afterward. Miro lowers his head in silence, and slowly turns back to the door. He looks up to it and turns the handle, swinging it open and shutting it, disappearing inside.  
  
The room was different from anything that Miro had ever seen. He stood in amazement at the doorway, looking around to make sure he wasn't in some twisted dream. There was more Porcelain in this room than he had ever wanted to see in his life. The sink, the toilet, the tub, the shower, even the walls and floor looked like they were made out of it. The room was steamy, too. A fine layer of mist veiled everything less than a meter from his face. Slightly scared and disturbed at this squeaky-clean room, Miro continued onward, wondering what he should do first. He decided that removing his clothes would have to be done first, since he didn't want them to get wet or torn or damaged from the horrors concealed in this far-too- shiny room.  
  
After quite literally peeling off the layers of clothes that he had worn for so long that they had nearly developed into a second layer of skin, Miro steps into the 'shower', as he had heard it was called in legends. He noticed a partially open window placed slightly above his head, and mumbled that that was simply asking for trouble. After closing the 'shower curtain', he stares at the device directly in front of him, wondering what would make it work. He timidly reaches for a handle, and turns it. Nothing. He attempts to push it in. It would not move. Finally, as he pulled his hand away from it, he accidentally pulled at it, and a surge of water came from the showerhead and caught him totally off-guard. Miro yelled in surprise and quite nearly slipped, but he managed to recover himself by backing into a wall.  
  
It wasn't quite as bad as he thought it would be. Miro felt the grime seep away from his skin with the water. It made him feel clean, pure, it made him want to sing. And so he did. He sang many things, things that he had learned when he was young, he didn't care much for what the songs were, the feeling was amazing.  
  
"HI MIR-EEK!"  
  
"AHH!" Miro yells at the shadow in the window, quickly throwing the shower curtain around himself.  
  
"Sorry!" Says the shadow, now covering her eyes.  
  
"KAAATE!" Miro yells angrily. "WHAT THE F-"  
  
"I said sorry!" Kate cuts him off. "I just heard your voice and-"  
  
"You didn't hear the water?! GO AWAY!"  
  
"WellIdidbutIthoughtyouwerejustwashingyourfaceorsomethingsoIclimbedupapileof boxesoverhereandlookedthroughbecauseIhaveto-" Kate begins explaining very quickly. Miro cuts her off, though, with another "GO AWAY!"  
  
"But I have to ask you something!" Kate says. "About the town having the meet-up, there'll be a big dance and-"  
  
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME!" Miro cuts in, his face now almost the same color as his hair. "I DON'T DANCE, I DON'T WANT TO DANCE, I'M NOT DANCING FOR AS LONG AS I-"  
  
"Okay, fine. I'll just get Hugh to come with me. I'm sure he'll be-"  
  
"NO WAY, I'M GOING AND THAT'S THE END OF IT!" Miro says, pausing, and suddenly hitting himself for saying that.  
  
Kate smiles triumphantly, still not uncovering her eyes.  
  
"I thought you would. See you there, sweetums." She laughs evilly and leaves the window, her voice still echoing in the hills. Miro was really getting sick of that laugh.  
  
"How'd I just do that?" He wonders to himself. "Why did I even say that? Why am I acting like such a... teenager!?" He stomps one foot down, and slips on a stray bar of soap on the ground, falling with a yell and a thunk.  
  
Later on, Miro emerges from the bathroom, still putting his shirt back on. Once he does, he sees that Jack had moved. Now reassured that his father was still alive, he walks back into the kitchen. There was Nami and Jack. Jack still looked extremely weak, but he was still breathing, and had managed to drag himself onto a chair.  
  
"Well, you two seem to be clean enough." Nami says. "Miro, you look a bit more stunned than usual, are you feeling okay?"  
  
"Uhh, nn, yu, yeah..." Miro says, nodding and somewhat shaking his head at the same time.  
  
"Well, you don't seem much worse than Jack" Nami concludes, shrugging. "Well, get your shoes on, we're going."  
  
(More to come in the next chapter! Sorry this isn't as much of a slapper as the first two, but it's just setting the stage for what's to come. See you then, and don't forget those reviews, I want opinions!) 


	4. The Showdown: Part 1

(This is the first of two parts, I'll have the second up as soon as I have time. And don't forget, I add chapters only if you add reviews!)  
  
Five or ten minuites later, Jack, Nami and Miro were striding through the main road, where some tents and stands were placed up for the event. Miro glances around nervously and keeps near his parents.  
  
"Miro, why don't you walk around a bit, talk to a few people?" Jack says. Miro looks at him.  
  
"What? Is there a rush? There's no rush." He says nervously. "I'll walk around later, like say, tomorrow."  
  
"Miro, go." Nami orders. Miro stays near, though.  
  
"Look, I don't want to be out in the open right now." He explains. "You see- " He's cut off, though, due to being quickly snatched away in mid- scentence. Jack and Nami look at each other, shrug, and walk over to a group of people, which included Muffy and Celia.  
  
"Hi Muffy, hi Celia." Jack says, waving.  
  
"Hello, Jack!" The two say in unison. Nami's eyes narrow slightly.  
  
"So, how're things going?" She asks in a tone that was anything but friendly.  
  
"Oh, about as well as they could..." Celia says sadly.  
  
"But it would be so much better if only we had a big, strong Farmy Man to keep us company..." Muffy says in the same, sad tone. Both of them walk closer and lean against either side of Jack, looking up at his face. Jack made his best attempt to look normal, but this was perhaps the most uncomfortable moment of the year. Nami had a look in her eyes that would stop traffic, and make the people run screaming from their cars.  
  
Muffy and Celia finally stepped slightly away from Jack.  
  
"But that's not going to happen..." Celia says.  
  
"No, it's not." Nami agrees, clenching and unclenching her fist.  
  
Muffy had concealed her left hand up until this moment, but now revealed it, holding a card.  
  
"Nami, this is for you." She says, handing the card over. Nami swipes it from her in a less than polite manner.  
  
"Don't open it yet." Celia says.  
  
"When should I?" Nami asks, extreme anger still present in her voice.  
  
"You'll know when." Muffy reassures her, giving a sweet, innocent smile.  
  
"Oh, and Jack," Celia says, turning back to him. "We got you something, too." She points to a very large, giftwrapped box sitting beside a stand. Jack's eyes widen slightly, and he gives his best attempt at a thanking smile. Nami was now more steamed than ever.  
  
"You can open it whenever you want." Celia adds. She and Muffy grin at each other and walk off.  
  
"I wonder where they're going...?" Jack says.  
  
"I can think of a few places." Nami says coldly.  
  
Meanwhile, behind a tent, Miro was clawing at the grass, trying to crawl to his escape. Something held him at bay, though. A large weight tied to his legs. He groaned and gave up, putting his face into the dirt. Someone steps up in front of him, looming above like an evil shadow. Miro raises his head to see who it was, though he already knew.  
  
"Are you ready yet, Miro?" Kate asks, looking down at him.  
  
"No." Miro says. "No, I'll never be ready, don't you get it? I. DON'T. DANCE."  
  
"Well what if I told you that you're on an anthill, full of hungry, red, and now angry ants?" Kate suggests.  
  
"I'd rather be eaten by the ants." Miro says. Kate sighs and grabs him by the hair, lifting him up along with the weight to eye level.  
  
"Listen, you're gonna dance, even if I have to tie you up to strings and move you around like a puppet!"  
  
"Well, isn't that lovely?" Miro says sarcastically, despite his position. "You're a real charmer sometimes, do you know that?"  
  
"Why, thank you, now DANCE!" Kate orders, throwing Miro over the tent and onto the pathway. She followed along around the tent and glared over to Van, who was eating noodles at the record player, which was converted into a DJ box by adding an obscure amount of amplifires and stereos to it.  
  
"MUSIC!" She yells. Van, in his surprise, chokes on his food for a moment but recovers, swallowing it down hard. He inserts some music into the player and quickly returns to his noodles.  
  
Miro was still on the ground, groaning in pain, when the music began to play. It was a slow-dancing melody. Kate rolls her eyes and lifts Miro up by his hair again.  
  
"That really hurts quite a bit, you know..." Miro says.  
  
"Oh, sorry." Kate says, tightening her grip and using one foot to pull the weight from Miro's legs, forcefully tearing the rope off. She finally releases Miro, who was holding his head now, eyes watering.  
  
"Jee, thanks..." He says sarcastically. "You know, you could've just-" He suddenly makes an attempt to dash off, but is gripped on the shoulder by Kate before he could get a step away. He is then forcefully put into a dancing position with her.  
  
The dancing was not so much of a dance than a dragging, with Kate sliding Miro side to side while Miro either remains limp or tries to pull away. Finally Kate grows tired of it and kicks Miro in the shin, warning him to start dancing well. Miro grudgingly goes along with it and starts to move his feet around, going along with the rhythm.  
  
Nami taps Jack's shoulder and glances over to Miro.  
  
"Look at that." She says with a slight smile. Jack turns to look.  
  
"Hmm, that's interesting, isn't it?" He says.  
  
"Yeah." Nami agrees. "Can you say 'daughter-in-law'?"  
  
"Daughter-in-" Jack's interrupted by Nami punching him on the head.  
  
"It's a figure of speech." She says, sighing.  
  
"Oh, okay." Jack says. "Now, I want to see what's in that present..."  
  
Miro was getting the hang of dancing now. He was even beginning to enjoy himself. Things could've been worse, really. And Kate wasn't that bad a dancer.  
  
Jack started to take the wrapping off of the large present, wondering what it could be.  
  
Miro ends the dance by doing something that surprised even him, he dipped Kate down. While still in that position, he slowly brought his face closer to Kate's, Kate doing the same.  
  
Jack finally got the wrapping off, and was about to open the box. There was no need, though. Something burst out from the box with a supernatural leap, sending styrofoam peanuts and other packaging debris flying in every direction.  
  
Miro was so surprised by this, he drops Kate, who hits the ground quite hard. He dosen't really notice, though, as he sees the thing that burst from the box land on the ground and slowly turn itself around to face the others.  
  
"Daachan!" Miro exclaims.  
  
"I knew it!" Jack says. "I told you he was evil!"  
  
"Okay, you were right, just this once." Nami says.  
  
"Kate, this is going to be dangerous..." Miro says to Kate, who was now back up from the ground. "Stay back, I'm taking care of this thing, once and for all."  
  
"Whatever." Kate says, crossing her arms and watching as Miro ran over to his parents.  
  
Once he had made it, Miro turned to face the thing.  
  
"Okay, so what are we doing?" He asks Jack and Nami.  
  
"Well, it shouldn't be too difficult since we have the whole town behind us..." Jack begins. He then looks around for the other residents of the town. No luck. The street was completely empty.  
  
"Never mind." Jack grumbles.  
  
"Hmm, I wonder..." Nami says. She takes out the letter that she had received from Celia and Muffy. She opens it and reads out loud:  
  
Nami and Jack,  
  
If you're reading this, that means that you've found out our little plan. We tricked that fool Van into selling you that oh-so-cute teddy bear Daachan all those years ago, and now the plan is about to be complete. If we can't have Jack, no one can. I hope you have fun. Luv ya!  
  
Celia  
  
"Grr... I thought so." Nami says to herself. She turns to look at Jack and Miro.  
  
"You two take care of the bear, I'm gonna get those little mascara slimeballs."  
  
Jack and Miro nod, and Nami runs off. She knows exactly where those two disappeared to. Nami rushes through the door to the Blue Bar and whizzes right by Griffin, opening the other door. She was in the room with a ladder that was marked 'Girls Only'. Despite what some people believed, she fit into that category. Nami climbs the ladder and slowly opens the trapdoor above, entering the room.  
  
The room was massive. It had a high roof and huge, long walls. It was decorated like some sort of palace, with pillars and statues all around the area. And there, down at the other end of the room, were Muffy and Celia. Muffy was sitting, busy filing her nails and Celia was simply standing there, smiling.  
  
"Oh, hello Nami." Celia says in mock sweetness. Muffy looks up from her hand to Nami.  
  
"So you caught on?" She says. "We thought you would."  
  
"Well, you did give me the letter, there was a good chance that I could put two and two together." Nami states, facing them.  
  
"But there's really nothing you can do." Celia explains. "No matter what you try, there's no way you can beat us. You're outnumbered, and overpowered."  
  
"Tch," Nami says, smirking. "What, a couple of pretty faces think they can outmatch me? I've seen weeds tougher than you."  
  
"Muffy, how long have we waited for this moment, to finish off Jack and this little tomboy?" Celia asks.  
  
"Hmm, I think it would be sixteen years today." Muffy says, returning to her nails. "But who's counting?"  
  
"Right. That really is a long time to wait, Nami. Our paitence is finally up, and now it's time." Celia says in a sinister tone. "Muffy, do the honor."  
  
"Gladly." Muffy says, getting up and setting her nail file aside, looking Nami down. She holds out the hand she had been filing and flicks her wrist, the nails suddenly shooting out three inches longer, into sharp, well- manicured claws.  
  
"Face it, Nami." Celia says. "Daachan is far more powerful than your husband and son, and you don't stand a chance against the two of us. It's over, you're through." 


	5. The Showdown: Part 2

(WARNING: This chapter is HUGE! If you feel your eyes starting to peel at the halfway point, take a break! No one says you have to read it all at once, it's like a cookie, you can finish it later. Oh, and once you're done, please review it! Just some short reviews, that's all I need to be happy.)  
  
Miro and Jack look at the stuffed bear in front of them. It looked just like it used to, but the eyes glowed with a brighter sheen than ever before. It began to walk toward them, very slowly.  
  
"Okay, what do we have for weapons?" Miro asks, looking over to Jack.  
  
"Uhh..." Jack says, putting down his rucksack and beginning to rummage through it. "We have... a straw and a tuna fish sandwich."  
  
"What kind of straw?"  
  
"A bendy straw."  
  
"Damn..." Miro curses. "What about the sandwich?"  
  
"Uhh," Jack says, peeling at the bread. "Tuna, with the heads still on, something that might be either mayo or run-off from the fish, bits of pickles, onions, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, garlic, peanut butter, bananna, relish, hot sauce, kerosene, and some stuff we found in the barn when the cow got sick."  
  
"Really?" Miro says. "Are you sure it's all that stuff?"  
  
"I can't tell, exactly..." Jack replies. "everything but the fish was kinda fused together."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I've had it in the bottom of my backpack for the past... ten years."  
  
"Oh... eww!" Miro says, looking queasy. "Is THAT what that smell was?"  
  
"Uhh... yeah." Jack replies, nodding weakly.  
  
Miro looks back to the bear, who was still approaching very slowly. He cringes.  
  
"Do you have anything else?" He asks, looking back to Jack.  
  
"Uhh..." Jack begins, going into his backpack again. "Well, here." He pulls out a baseball bat and hands it to Miro.  
  
"Ah, this is perfect!" Miro says. He brandishes the bat and faces the bear.  
  
"Okay, Kate, watch me!" He says.  
  
Remaining where she was previously, Kate rolls her eyes.  
  
"Yeah, you go Miro. Beat up that large, cute, stuffed teddy bear. That'll look impressive for sure." She says sarcastically.  
  
Miro sighs and lowers his head, handing the bat back to Jack.  
  
"You do it." He says. "I don't feel like doing it anymore."  
  
"Ah, what, did Kate's mean, evil comments get you down?" Jack says to his son, taking the bat. "Don't worry, I'll finish this thing off myself. Heck, I married Nami, this'll be no challenge at all!" He rushes over to the bear, yelling enthusiastically. He swings his bat right at it, or that was what he thought. Daachan had somehow dashed out of the way at a speed almost quicker than the eye, and was now behind Jack. As Jack realised what had happened and turned around to face it, Daachan struck Jack hard with a flying roundhouse kick, sending him five feet before hitting the ground.  
  
"Dad! You okay?" Miro says, alarmed.  
  
"Nope..." Jack replies weakly.  
  
Meanwhile, Nami was staring down Muffy, who brandished her sharp nails in preperation to fight. Nami reached into her pockets, but turned out nothing.  
  
'What a time to not bring my knives...' she thinks to herself, looking back to Muffy. She clenched her hands into fists and got ready for a fight.  
  
"You can still run, you know." Muffy reminds her. "You can skip town, it's not like there's going to be anything left for you once Daachan's done."  
  
"You talk big," Nami says. "but if you think that my husband and son can't win a fight against a teddy bear, and that I can't win a fight against two little preps who are pushing their thirties, you're gonna get a harsh slap of reality very soon."  
  
"Enough talk!" Muffy yells, running at Nami with ferocious speed. Muffy slashes at Nami, which she dodged, but her second strike had to be blocked. The two clasped hands, trying to get the upper hand on one another.  
  
Celia simply watched, allowing Muffy to do the dirty work for her. If worse came to worse, Celia was prepared to fight, too.  
  
Muffy, however, had the advantage in this situation due to her claw-nails, and dug into Nami's hand with them. Nami gasps, and is lowered down to her knees, but she wasn't even close to being defeated.  
  
"Look, signs of aging!"  
  
"Where?" Muffy asks worriedly, removing her hands in order to feel her face for whatever Nami was talking about.  
  
"Right here!" Nami says, lifting her fist and punching Muffy right in the middle of her face. Muffy staggers back, stunned. Nami takes this opportunity to kick Muffy square in the gut, and as she fell back, to quickly grab her by the neck with one hand. She puts her face right in front of Muffy's.  
  
"So, is this part of your plan?" She asks.  
  
"Na... m... mi..." Is all that Muffy could choke out due to being... choked. Nami releases her grip slightly.  
  
"Yes?" Nami asks.  
  
"Maybe it is." Muffy says, smirking. She whips her hand around and cuts Nami across the face with her nails. Nami makes no yell of pain, but instead grabs Muffy's arm with her other hand and angrily throws her out of a nearby window, shattering the glass.  
  
"OKAY, THAT WASN'T PART OF THE PLAAAAaaaaan!" Muffy yells as she falls to the ground outside with a painful-sounding crash. A groan of soreness could be heard outside now.  
  
Nami feels her cut face for a second and turns to Celia.  
  
"Yes," Celia says. "Before you ask, that was part of my plan. I would've only been disappointed if Muffy could defeat you."  
  
"Well, then," Nami says, getting ready to fight again. "I guess I'm about to impress you more than you've ever been in your life."  
  
Back at the street, Miro was looking around for a weapon of some sort to fight Daachan with. He searched around frantically, but couldn't find a thing. Finally, Kate loses her paitence.  
  
"Miro!" She yells. "Just throw a rock!"  
  
"But where's a rock?" Miro asks, looking around on the ground.  
  
"Miro, YOU'RE STANDING ON A PATH!" Kate yells. "THEY'RE MADE OUT OF ROCKS, YOU INANE, WITLESS, DENSE, HALF-BAKED TWIT!"  
  
"...Okay, what does that mean?"  
  
"I found the words in a thesaurus, now THROW SOMETHING!"  
  
"Oh, right..." Miro says, finding a decent-sized rock on the ground. He picks it up and turns to the bear, a glare in his eyes. It was a showdown, perhaps a final one. It was so completely final-ish, it even had showdown background music, supplied by Van when he put the music on accidentally as he rushed to cower under his stand. After a long staredown, Miro winds up his throw, and launches the rock directly at Daachan with a tremendous force.  
  
Daachan, with another burst of speed and power, span and kicked the rock back towards Miro. It came back too quickly for Miro to react, and riccocheted itself right off of his skull. Stunned and dazed, he had no time to defend himself from Daachan's next attack. It dashed towards Miro and slammed into him, sending him quite a distance and pinning/slamming him against one of the Inner Inn's posts.  
  
"Ooowwwwwwwww..." Miro whines while being pinned against the wood. He is suddenly pressed harder by the bear's arms, now being strangled. It looked like he was toast, the world around him was getting dark...  
  
Suddenly, like an extremely angry budgie, a black throwing star whizzes from the trees and plants itself into Daachan's fuzzy head. It releases it's grip on Miro and lets him fall, while now busy trying to remove thew implement from it's head with it's fuzzy paws. Miro takes this opportunity to kick Daachan, sending it tumbling a short way down the hill. He then looks to the trees to see who had just saved him. A mysterious person with a black ninja outfit on jumps down from the trees, face half-covered in a black cloth.  
  
"I am..." The fuigre begins.  
  
"Lumina?" Miro says.  
  
The person sighs and grumbles something, but then returns to a heroic stance.  
  
"No, I am... A Random Ninja!"  
  
"No you're not." Miro relies. "You're Lumina, in a very sleek, cool-looking ninja disquise."  
  
"Grr... Look, kid," The ninja yells. "I've had a tough day, Granny's giving me heck for not being able to play Napoleon's Fifth Symphony blindfolded with one hand, the cats are getting REALLY annoying, and our butler's ugly and he smells like garlic bread, TODAY I'M A FRIGGIN' NINJA!"  
  
"you must have a lot of time on your hands, to practice piano and have ninja training." Miro says.  
  
"Yeah, I guess." Lumina says. "Say, are you busy tomorr-" Her question is cut off by Kate's elbow.  
  
"Watch it, missie, you're not getting Miro until I'm through with him. You can have whatever's left."  
  
"Huh." Miro says plainly, shifting back slightly. "Umm, don't we have something we should be doing? Like fighting the bear?"  
  
"I'm not fighting." Kate says. "You, your comatose Dad, and Ms. Ninja here seem to have things under control."  
  
"Uhh, actually, to tell the truth..." Lumina says, rubbing the back of her head nervously. "I only have that one throwing star, it's my only real weapon..."  
  
"So you'll be sitting on the sidelines with Kate?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"After all of that stuff you did?"  
  
"Kinda, yeah..."  
  
"Greeat... Dad, you awake yet?!"  
  
Jack grunts and gets up slowly. "Yeah, mostly..."  
  
"I got hit by a rock, and I'm already back up!" Miro says. "You're my Dad, you should be able to take more punishment than that!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah." Jack says, shaking himself off. "Now let's finish this thing off!"  
  
Nami, meanwhile, was just waiting for Celia's first move. She was ready for whatever Celia had in mind.  
  
"You just gonna stand there, girly, or are you gonna fight?" Nami asks.  
  
"I like the second choice." Celia says plainly. She walks over to a broom leaning against the wall, and picks it up. She then turned to face Nami, keeping her sweet smile on.  
  
"Give it your best shot." She says cheerily. Nami obliges and runs at Celia, aiming a fist at her. Celia dodges out of the way at a surprising speed for someone wearing a heavy, plaid dress and counters Nami's attack with a swift strike of the broom to the back of her head.  
  
"Ah!" Nami yells in pain and surprise, holding the back of her head and turning back to face Celia. "What is that thing, hardwood?"  
  
"It has to be the best quality if I want to sweep up trash like you." Calia says, returning to her sinister personality. Nami just narrows her eyes and gets ready for another attack.  
  
This time Celia came at her, striking at Nami with a series of attacks from her broom handle, which Nami either blocked with her arms or dodged when she could. At the end, Celia jumped back a distance.  
  
"I'm a little impressed." She says. "Not many people can get around hits like that. Too bad your little arms must be sore now. Well, time for round two!" She jumps back forward, ready to strike. Nami catches her hit with her hands, fortunately, and tries to disarm Celia. Celia keeps a strong grip on the handle, however, and tries to pry it away from Nami's grip.  
  
"That's cheap fighting!" Celia says.  
  
"No THIS is!" Nami yells, pushing the broom into Celia's face, the bristles scratching slightly. Celia yells and pulls the broom away from Nami.  
  
"So, you wanna fight dirty-" Celia begins, but Nami dosen't bother to wait for her to finish. She starts punching at Celia, but the attacks are blocked by the broom. Celia was really starting to get mad now, and pulls out a bottle of perfume. As soon as she had the opportunity, Celia sprays Nami directly in the eyes. Nami yells and steps back a bit.  
  
"You're paying for that!" Nami says, still rubbing it out of her eyes.  
  
"Do you know what kind of scent that is?" Celia asks.  
  
"What kind?" Nami says. "-Oh, don't tell me..."  
  
"Popuri!" Celia exclaims.  
  
"Crap!" Nami yells in frustration. "You mean I smell like a ditzy chicken farmer?!"  
  
"No, the leaf." Celia explains. "You see, the leaf gives off a scent when you beat it in a cup of water for a while and then dry it, and then the people make the leaf into a perfume which smells really nice, I think, but I'm sorta traditional, I like the rose scent more, personally, but-"  
  
"SHUT UP!" Nami yells, plugging her ears. "I DON'T GIVE A CRAP, WE'RE FIGHTING HERE!" She runs at Celia again but dosen't quite get the opportunity to attack. With a quick upward movement, Celia strikes Nami upside the chin, sending her to the ground. She then walks up and pins her to the ground with her foot.  
  
"Any last words?" She asks, pointing the broom handle to her face.  
  
"Ow, you made me bite my tounge..." Nami says.  
  
"Besides that?"  
  
"Sure. How about, you're not gonna win this?"  
  
Calia laughs in an evil fashion and raises her broom above her head, ready to strike.  
  
"Oh? I don't think so. Say goodbye, Nami!"  
  
Back at the battle of man and stuffed beast, Miro and the newly conscious Jack get ready to continue the battle.  
  
"Okay," Miro begins, turning to the hill where he kicked Daachan down. "Let's... Where'd he go?"  
  
"What?" Jack says, looking around. "I don't see it, where is...?"  
  
"Watch out!" Kate and Lumina chorus. The guys turn aroud to see Daachan flying at them, blur of fur and red eyes. Jack and Miro are ready just in time, and manage to grab it in mid-flight. It was a strong impact, though, and they slid some way before halting. Finally with the upper hand, they smash it into a nearby streetlight and throw it at the ground. They both make a motion to start jumping on it, but it moves out of the way, and instead Jack ends up crushing Miro's foot.  
  
"Owww!" Miro whines, hopping on one foot for a moment.  
  
"Oh, sorry, son!" Jack says. "Here, let me take a look at-" Just while he bent down to look at Miro's injury, Daachan dashes and strikes him, sending Jack careening across the road about fifteen meters and hitting the ground, hard.  
  
Daachan dosen't stop there, before Miro had time to react, it tripped him since he was on one foot and he falls, as well. Daachan then raised a foot to finish Miro off, but suddenly a very rapidly-firing slew of rocks began to continually strike it and force it to step back. It was Kate and Lumina, doing their part to keep Miro from being smacked around any more than they wanted him to be.  
  
"Miro, get up!" Kate yells.  
  
"We don't want to do all of the work!" Lumina adds.  
  
Miro obeys and slowly puts himself back on his feet. Just before Miro had stood up fully, Daachan jumped an incredible height to avoid the rocks and went at Kate and Lumina. Miro gasped, and started running after it. Daachan landed between them and prepared to attack.  
  
"No, my prospects!" Miro yells, running faster. Kate and Lumina could take care of themselves, however, and blocked Daachan's attack, but unfortunately, due to the supernatural bursts of power that Daachan was prone to due to absorbing so much 'cute-wittle-bear' baby talk and converting it into evil, powerful energy over the years, the attacks were still strong enough to knock them back a distance, Kate hitting the wall of the Inner Inn, Lumina hitting the cliff-wall opposite.  
  
Miro stops. "Okay, that's it! This is the end!" He yells. "Dad, throw over the big guns!"  
  
Jack gets up, groaning, and realises what Miro meant. He walks over to an object he had left on the ground and picks it up. Winding it up, he throws it to Miro.  
  
Miro snatches it in mid-air and holds it in front of him. Daachan turns around slowly to face it's opponent. Miro was holding the tuna fish sandwich. It's putrid smell radiated from it like a dead skunk that had been left in the sun at the top of a garbage pile in an open-air sewer. Miro knew the risk, but it had to be done.  
  
Kate recovered from her hit and looked to see Miro holding the sandwich. She gasped, just slightly.  
  
"Take cover!" She yells. Lumina looks over to her.  
  
"What for?" She yells back.  
  
"He's gonna-"  
  
Before she could finish her scentence, Miro had crammed the entire tuna fish sandwich into his mouth. After a long bout of chewing the moldy, musty, nasty piece of putrescent, decade-old lunch, he swallows it down hard. He immediately lowers his head, but raises it again to look at Daachan with a vicious gleam in his eyes.  
  
"You're making me angry..." He says slowly, with an evil grin on his face. "You don't like me when I'm angry..."  
  
Daachan's eyes seem to narrow, as though it knew that it now faced a whole new opponent.  
  
Lumina decides to follow Kate's advice and ducks behind a house nearby. Kate gets behind a barrel and pokes her head over slightly to see what happens.  
  
Jack watches in awe and shuffles towards Kate in the middle of this standstill. He ducks behind a barrel nearby and does the same.  
  
"How decrepit was that sandwich?" Kare asks Jack.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"It means old. How old was it?"  
  
As soon as Jack uttered 'ten years', Kate's eyes widened and she gasped.  
  
"That means... Oh my frickin' Goddess..."  
  
Miro suddenly began convulsing where he stood, looking like something was about to shoot from his chest. He had to bend over in pain, but he stopped for a moment. A low rumbling could be heard.  
  
"Oh, no..." Jack says weakly.  
  
"He's getting gas back-up!" Kate yells. "He's gonna unleash... NUCLEAR TUNA BREATH!!!" They both duck behind the barrels completely.  
  
Daachan tried to take quick action and leaped at Miro with all of it's energy, but it was too late. Miro looked up to Daachan, felt it moving up his throat and fired. He emmitted a massive belch that carried with it such power and such stench that the very foundation of the planet rattled under it's force. He disgorged a breath wave of impure, nasty tuna smell so ungodly, it rotted or ripped plants and trees from their roots and threw any small animals in it's path all the way to Mineral Town. Daachan was in the middle of it's leap but the blast was so strong that he was suspended in mid-air for a moment. Slowly, the power overcame it, and Daachan dissolved away into nothing but a pair of eyes, which fell to the ground with a clink.  
  
Celia was taken by surprise from this, and the quake that resulted knocked her off of her feet, falling backwards to the ground. When the quake subsided, Nami got up and kicked the broom from Celia's hands, to the far end of the room. Celia whimpered slightly.  
  
"Goodbye, Celia." Nami says.  
  
The following events in that room could be heard by Griffin as a long and very, very painful-sounding series of punches. A few seconds after it ended, Nami stepped from the back room of the bar, dusting her hands off. She ignored the stunned Griffin and walked out of the bar, back to the others.  
  
Kate looked out from the barrel, blinking for a moment.  
  
"That... was the most disgusting thing... EVER!" She yells.  
  
Ending the attack, Miro fell over backwards and spent the next little while looking up at the pretty colors. Lumina did a classical 'ninja vanish', but Kate and Jack rushed over to see if Miro was okay.  
  
"Miro?" Kate says. "Miro? Meeeero?" She leans over him and waves a hand in front of his face. Miro blinks but otherwise makes no response. Jack prodded him with his foot, but he still held still.  
  
"Wow, he's out of it." Jack says.  
  
"Do you think he can hear us?" Kate asks.  
  
"Maybe." Jack says. "Try to say something he'd respond to."  
  
"...No way, I'm not falling for that!" Kate yells. "You're trying to get me to say something really corny so this'll all turn into a big, stupid romance!"  
  
"Did I say that?" Jack says innocently. "I don't think I said that. I just meant for you to say something like 'you want seconds on that tuna fish?'"  
  
Still no response from Miro.  
  
Nami walks over to them, and sees Miro on the ground, dazed.  
  
"He's the one who did that?" She asks. Jack and Kate nod.  
  
"Hmm..." Nami says, trying to think of a way to bring Miro back. "Ah, I know. Miro! Kate says she lo-"  
  
Miro snaps awake suddenly, standing bolt upright. Unfortunately, Kate was in his path, and their faces bashed into one another. After a second of being facially connected, they realised what they were doing and jumped back, both slightly red.  
  
"Your mom lied!" Kate says, making sure that that was known to everyone. She spits for a second and wipes off her mouth before speaking again.  
  
"Ugh, your breath is horrible!"  
  
"You're no Listerine lady yourself!" Miro says, also spitting.  
  
"You're the one who ate a mummified fish sandwich!"  
  
"I guess you have a point, your bad breath must just come naturally!"  
  
"Should we go?" Jack asks Nami while the other two continued to argue. Nami nods slightly. They both walk away slowly, back to the farm.  
  
The two glowing red eyes of Daachan remained on the ground, their bright shine fading away. Finally, after enduring for a few minuites (while Miro and Kate continued to fight), they dimmed down more and more, until finally they flickered out.  
  
(So ends my longest chapter yet! Please give me reviews, I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about it.) 


	6. The Adventure: Prologue

(Sorry for the wait, guys, but I think my new angle on the HM universe is going to be worth it. This is a bold step for any writer of a fic, so I really need to know if you like where it's going. What am I talking about? Read on, my friends.)  
  
The next morning, Jack woke up but remained in bed. He was completely exhausted from what had happened the last day. Not only that, but Miro and Kate continued to yell at one another late into the night. It kept pretty much everyone awake. Jack mumbled something incoherently, and he heard Nami mumble in response. With some effort, Jack began to speak in an audible tone.  
  
"Mmnk... You awake?..." He asks sleepily.  
  
"Unnnmm... I dunno, you?" Nami replies.  
  
"I dunno... When'd Miro stop yelling?"  
  
"Maybe... three hours ago."  
  
"What's the time now?..."  
  
"I dunno... about 10."  
  
"Oh..." Jack says, yawning. "Miro home yet?"  
  
"I dunno..." Nami replies. "Maybe one of us... should open our eyes... dibs out."  
  
"Aww, man..." Jack groans. "I don't have enough energy... I'll cramp up..."  
  
"I said dibs out."  
  
"Ugh... fine." Jack says, slowly prying open his eyelids.  
  
"What do you see?" Nami asks.  
  
"I see... a roof..." Jack replies, noticing it through his bloodshot, half- closed eyes.  
  
"Oh... well, at least we know we still have one." Nami says. "Since that belch Miro made, I hoped that he didn't peel it right off..."  
  
"He dissolved Gustafa's place..." Jack says. "Which is icing on the cake, I think..."  
  
"Jack, turn your head." Nami says. "We still have to see if Miro's here..."  
  
"Ugh, I have to do everything..." Jack groans before arching his stiff, sore neck to one side.  
  
"What do you see?"  
  
"I see... your face."  
  
"Oh... How do I look?" Nami asks.  
  
"Tired." Jack replies, yawning. "Baggy-eyed and messy-haired and emotionless and... pretty much what you looked like when I married you."  
  
"Oh, how sweet..." Nami says before forcefully kicking Jack out of the bed, who landed on a stray building block he had forgotten to pick up for the last few years.  
  
"Auuugh... my back, my back..." He groans, getting his tired, stiff, and now aching body off of the ground.  
  
"Now go see if Miro's here." Nami orders, her eyes still closed. "I need my beauty rest, just like you said."  
  
Jack began to grumble "No amount of rest could-" But he is cut off by a surprisingly solid down pillow contacting his face at close to mach 3.  
  
"I'm going, I'm going..." Jack says, spitting out some feathers before trudging to the door leading to Miro's room.  
  
Opening the door quietly, Jack finds Miro standing quietly, looking out his window. He seemed to be in a daze, like he was thinking deeply about something.  
  
"MIRO!" Jack yells, hoping that it would snap him out of it. And so it did, making Miro jump onto his bed and face Jack.  
  
"...Oh, it's only you." He says, sighing in relief. "Uasually when someone yells my name out from right behind me it's... bah, never mind. ...Oh, jee, you don't look so good, Dad. You need some sleep?"  
  
"Don't make me hurt you." Jack says in a very I'm-not-kidding tone.  
  
"Err, right." Miro says with a nervous smile. "Sorry, I forgot about that..."  
  
"How could you forget about arguing with Kate at a loudspeaker volume for FOURTEEN HOURS?" Jack asks.  
  
"Well, I guess..." Miro begins, looking back out the window. "My mind's somewhere else."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I've been thinking..." Miro says, his eyes glazed over in thought. "Of... leaving the farm. Making a name for myself somewhere else."  
  
"WHAT? Miro, we need you here-"  
  
"Dad-"  
  
"You're the next generation, if you go, the farm will be totally abandoned when your mother and I go-"  
  
"Dad-"  
  
"Plus we need you here right now, you're the quickest at watering and you're a great fisher, too, and besides, we don't have sprites to share the work like in those bigger towns-"  
  
"DAD!"  
  
"Huh, what?"  
  
"Think about it," Miro begins. "With me not here, there won't be anyone here to continue the family farm line, right?"  
  
"Yeah, that's the prob-"  
  
"And what does that mean for you? You'll need a child here, right?"  
  
"Right..."  
  
"And without me here, how do you get another child into the farm?"  
  
"Adoption? ............Miro, you're brilliant." Jack says, smiling.  
  
"I thought you'd agree." Miro says. "Now... I think I'll be going." He walks to his bedside and picks up a rucksack.  
  
"Wait a second." Jack says.  
  
"What?" Miro asks, turning to him. "You want to say anything else?"  
  
"Yes. You and I both know that Nami is not gonna let you go that easy." Jack says. "I can do this for you: I'll give you one day, 24 hours, to get as far out of here as possible. After that, we'll be coming after you. If we find you, you'll have to come back home. If you've made a name for yourself before we find you, as you say, then I'll let you go."  
  
Miro smirks slightly. "Who says you'll find me?"  
  
"Trust me, I will." Jack reassures him with the same smirk. "...Well, what are you waiting for? The clock starts now. Go."  
  
(This is it, the beginning of a new story! Well, not really a new story, so much as a new adventure within the story, like a mini-story in the story, only bigger... err, you know what I mean. Anyway, Miro's adventure and Jack's persuit will take up a lot of chapters, for what I have planned. And remember, PLEASE give out reviews, I need your opinions!) 


	7. The Adventure: Part 1, Rough Start

(Let's see... It's been six chapters and I've been relatively on-theme, so I think I'll begin this one with a semi-emotional opening moment on Miro's behaf. Its only those two small paragraphs right there in the beginning, so bear with me, I didn't know how to start this chapter.)

After sneaking out the window in order to avoid Nami's detection, Miro makes good with his headstart and exits town immediately. At the top of the hill overlooking the Valley, he stops, and turns around. He takes a look at the tiny town he grew up in, and wonders if he'll return to it a succesful man or just a kid who ran away from home and got caught. He wonders other things, too.  
  
"Dad's not gonna find me, not alone, anyway. Mom just might, but hopefully not. But... I know who will." He thinks to himself, or perhaps he said it aloud, he couldn't tell. "I know who'll come looking as soon as word passes that I've gone. It's almost impossible, that I'll ever really leave behind..." He stops and sighs, lowering his head, slowly turning his back to the Valley and beginning to walk.  
  
"I hope..."  
  
(There, emotional moment over. Now on to something far more interesting.)  
  
"...You WHAT?" Nami's voice echoes in the little house, rattling the windows and startling the animals outside. Jack had been backed into a corner at this point and had his hands held out to shield himself from the blows that he was most likely going to suffer.  
  
"Well, y-you said yourself that he should sh-shape his own future, Honey, and I thought th-that this was a perfect opportunity for him." Jack stammers, sinking down into the corner in fear.  
  
"Oh, then I guess this is my own fault... no, no wait, IT'S YOURS!" Nami says, kicking Jack's shin quite hard. "What were you thinking?! He's only fourteen-"  
  
"Fifteen. His birthday was a few days back, we had cake, it was tasty. In fact-"  
  
"Don't change the subject!" Nami says, kicking his other shin. "He's out there wandering aimlessly for some sort of destiny, how stupid do you have to be-"  
  
"Nami, you... kinda... did that, too. Before. To get to the Valley. Remember?" Jack says, praying that she dosen't find another spot to kick him in. Nami's face loosens up slightly and she thinks for a moment.  
  
"You have a point, Jack." She says finally. "But I was older when I-"  
  
"Not by much, probably." Jack says, slightly bold for his current situation. "You were some kind of world traveller, right? Well, you probably didn't start at eighteen, that would mean you were only travelling for about a year. You must've been younger."  
  
"Yeah, I guess, but..." Nami starts, for once actually at a loss of things to say. "But... we need him here at the farm. He's the next gener..." A light suddenly came on in her head. A question that she automatically answered as soon as she thought of it: Why did Jack let Miro go if he was the only continuation of the family line?  
  
If Nami's face had softened at all, it went back to being as cold and hard as a cliff in that exact moment.  
  
"Oh, so you think that if Miro leaves, we'll need to get him a new brother who will stay at the farm, huh?" She asks. Suddenly her disposition changed, this time for the better. She gives a wry smile and turns her body away from him in a tantalizing manner, pacing away slowly. "Well..." She begins. Jack, thinking that things had turned for the better, left his corner and approached Nami. As soon as Jack was in range, Nami finished her scentence.  
  
"...you're DEAD WRONG!" She yells, throwing a deadly backhanded right hook at Jack at a velocity powerful enough to slam his body into a wall, leaving a very visible imprint of himself on it.  
  
"You said you gave him 24 hours? Well we're cutting that short, we leave at first light tomorrow!"  
  
"Umm... that's not a huge change, maybe a couple of hours' difference but not really-"  
  
"I wonder how much your life insurance is worth...?"  
  
"Err, shutting up."  
  
Meanwhile, Miro was walking down the path he hoped would lead to whatever he was looking for. He had a gut feeling that he would find something soon, but what it was he had no idea. He just followed his instincts.  
  
A small sound was heard, just off the path. Miro looks over to see what the source of the noise was, but couldn't see anything. He decides to investigate, and walks off the trail to where he thought he had heard it. There was nothing in sight, but- Miro heard it again, closer to him. It sounded like leaves rustling. He couldn't tell where it came from, though. He shuts his eyes and tries to focus on where the sound was coming from. He could hear it, but just barely. It didn't seem to be an animal, it was too large or not large enough. Quickly, Miro dashed in it's direction and punched his fist into a bush, which is where he heard the rustling from.  
  
There was nothing, whatever had been there somehow snuck away. Miro then noticed something much more important; he had just punched through a thorn bush.  
  
"Ahhhh, ooooowwwwwww..." He says as he slowly pulled his hand out of the bush, eyes squinting in pain. Once he had released himself from the plant, Miro looked at his badly scratched hand. It was cut and bleeding a bit everywhere, but he was pretty sure it didn't need much bandaging.  
  
"Excellent start to my day..." He mumbles to himself. He suddenly notices a prescence behind him and whips around, staring eyeball-to-eyeball with the sneak.  
  
"Hello." He says. Miro gives him a look, but the other didn't seem to care. He simply steps back a reasonable distance.  
  
"Well, nice to meet you again, too." The boy says sarcastically. He stood at Miro's height and seemed to be his age. He had jet-black hair mostly concealled under a cap, which also covered one of his eyes. Miro suddenly recognized him.  
  
"Matthew?" He says in surprise. "What the hell are you doing here?"  
  
"It's none of your concern." Matthew says. "Yourself?"  
  
"None of your concern." Miro says in equal ignorance. "But can you at least tell me how you did that thing with the bush?"  
  
"You just need good reflexes." Matthew says. "It's a gift."  
  
"I see... you're a gifted sneak, then. Be proud." Miro says in mock admiration. "But seriously, what did you say to make your parents agree to let you so far out?"  
  
"Not much." Matthew says. "Mom was busy with her books, so she just nodded along with what I said, and Dad agreed that I should get out and see the world, instead of rotting my youth away in the blacksmith. He gave me-"  
  
"24 hours," Miro finishes for him. "to get as far away as possible before the mother figures out, right?"  
  
"Uhh... well, yes." Matthew says, slightly surprised. "How did you..."  
  
"Same here." Miro explains. "But I have to be going now. If you're not going to tell me why you're doing this in the first place, I have no need for you to be around." He begins to walk.  
  
"Hold up." Matthew says. Miro stops and looks at him.  
  
"I'll tell you, if you're that interested, just as long as you tell me your reason." He finishes.  
  
"Okay, agreed." Miro says. "Let's hear it."  
  
"You see..." Matthew begins. "It's a bit of a combination. I want to find myself a life outside of town, just to see if I can. Y'know, see what I can do."  
  
"Hmm... jee, you're reading me." Miro says. "That's... exactly why I'm here, too. Huh."  
  
"And also..." Matthew continues. "The second reason's because, well... I'm sorta trying to get away from... someone. Or maybe get someone to me, I can't really tell..."  
  
"Same... I guess..." Miro says. "Well, I'm outta here. You can follow, but I really don't have a direction."  
  
"Well, I don't see why not." Matthew says, shrugging. "There's better odds if there's more of us. Let's get going-"  
  
"Shh," Miro says suddenly, holding a hand out to silence him. "I heard something..."  
  
Miro had developed acceptional hearing skills over the years, due to both being in his small, silent room for the majority of his life and to the necessity of not having 'certain' people sneak up on him. For a moment he shut his eyes and focused on small noises, but couldn't seem to hear it anymore. Suddenly, something that sounded like someone moving quickly. Miro opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the sound, Matthew doing the same since he had also heard it. There was nothing. Miro walked forward slowly, pushing away branches and looking around. Suddenly, he sees something on the ground. He kneels down and picks it up.  
  
A ribbon. A blue ribbon. Miro's eyes widen slightly.  
  
"But... I haven't seen one of these since I was a kid..." He mumbles to himself.  
  
"What? Man, you can find those things everywhere!" Matthew says. "Convienience stores, gas stations, truck stops, lying around in ditches and on trees and-"  
  
"That's not what I meant!" Miro snaps, shutting him up. "Firstly, when have you last seen a truck stop or a gas station in these parts?"  
  
"...Hey, yeah..." Matthew says, realising this for the first time. "Jee, this whole part of the countryside is in the Feudal Era..."  
  
"Anyway," Miro continues. "Secondly, it's not simply any blue ribbon, but THIS one specifically that I haven't seen in years."  
  
"How can you tell? It looks just like any blue ribbon to me."  
  
"I just can, okay? I've spent a pretty long time staring at the hair this ribbon used to tie back in my youth, I know what I'm talking about. But that means... Matthew, we have to travel faster."  
  
"How much faster?" Matthew asks.  
  
"Sprinting." Miro replies. "Now, go!"  
  
Back at the farm, Nami had quickly strung together a small work force to take care of the farm, and was now briefing them on their jobs as they lined up in front of her. The force consisted of the Sprites, Rock, Lumina, Daryll and... Murrey.  
  
"I've thrown you bunch together since... well, you obviously have nothing better to do with your lives." Nami says. "You three," She points to Nik, Nak, and Flak. "You're small and weak, so you'll be in charge of chickens and the feeding thereof. And you," She looks specifically at Flak. "If I see one grain of feed eaten by you, I'm getting it back with plyers."  
  
"We won't let you down!" Nik says.  
  
"We won't let you down!" Nak says.  
  
"Errumm... I'll do my best!" Flak says, slightly nervously.  
  
"Good, now for you." Nami says, looking over to Rock. Rock smiles, but Nami stares at him coldly.  
  
"I don't like you," Nami says plainly. "I spent two years in a room next to yours and you're not a quiet sleeper, since you don't sleep so much as just play loud music and break things all night. Therefore, you're in charge of plants."  
  
"Oh. Well, that's not so bad." Rock says, shrugging.  
  
"You'll be using this." Nami continues, handing him the Weird Watering Can. "It only holds one plant's worth of water at a time, and..." She waves her hand out to the nearly-full fields of the farm. Rock stares at them, and then to the tiny watering can. He looks almost ready to cry.  
  
Satisfied, Nami moves over to the next in line, Lumina.  
  
"You're getting an easier job." Nami reassures her. "Since I heard you saved my son's life at one point, I'll give you milking duty."  
  
"Great!" Lumina says enthusiastically. "This'll be so much fun! I can't believe I'm going to touch the same udders that Jack did!"  
  
Nami's eyes narrow. Jack, in the background, put his hands behind his back and whistled.  
  
"Look, kid," Nami says. "Jack's mine, he's been mine for fifteen years, and he'll be mine untill one of us is dead. You had a crush on him when you were ten. GET. OVER. IT. Maybe if you're incredibly lucky you can marry our son."  
  
Lumina, looking slightly downcast, sighed and nodded. Nami moved over to the next laborer.  
  
"Hmm..." Nami says, looking at Daryll. "What are you good for?"  
  
"I'm a genius with solid grit, great knowledge, and manly determination!" Daryll announces, flexing his pencil-arm muscles.  
  
"I see..." Nami says. "Ah, I know. You can cut the grass."  
  
"WHAT?" Daryll yells.  
  
"Okay, okay, fair enough." Nami says calmly. "You can... feed the cat and dog too, how's that sound?"  
  
"Ugh. Oh, fine." Daryll says, grumbling.  
  
"As for you..." Nami says, moving over to Murrey and holding a hand over her nose. "Ugh. I have a perfect job for you."  
  
"Moi." Murrey says. "Is it f-fun?"  
  
"Very." Nami says. "Since you look and smell the part, you can... clean up after the animals. And here's the best part, you can keep everything you shovel."  
  
"All right!" Murrey says happily. "I won't let you d-down! Moi."  
  
"You'd better not." Nami warns him. "Or you're in for a beard-swinging once we get back. Now, if everyone knows what they'll be doing, Jack and I have to get ready." She walks away from the group and to the house, motioning for Jack to follow.  
  
In the house, Nami rummages through the closet/shelf/dresser that she had brought to the house when she moved in with Jack.  
  
"What're you looking for?" Jack asks curiously.  
  
"Remember, I was born to travel like this, and so was Miro." Nami begins, still looking through the shelves. "He has my blood in his veins, he has my instincts, so he'll be tough to find. Not to mention, you'll probably be slowing me down a huge amount."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"I'm just telling the truth here. Anyway, we do have one advantage over him."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Supplies." Nami says. "Jack, what did Miro use to carry his things with?"  
  
"He had a hand-me-down rucksack that I used to use." Jack says. "It's small, but strangely enough it can carry up to 99 of everything that's either worth money or I can cook with."  
  
"Well, I'm afraid he's in trouble, then." Nami says, finding what she was looking for. She pulls out a massive bag that she had kept throughout her travels and flung it effortlessly over her shoulder.  
  
"Whoa..." Jack says plainly. "Is that the thing you had in the corner of your room when you were still at the Inn?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"I thought that that was a couch!"  
  
"Well, of course you did. You were too busy **looking at my diary** to notice!" Nami reminds him.  
  
"Oh... heheh, yeah..." Jack says, remembering an incident that had put him into a three-day coma. "Those were the days..."  
  
"Hmph, well, we have until next morning, and those idiots are running the farm." Nami says. "What do you want to do?"  
  
"Well... we could try for that new kid." Jack offers. Nami refuses, not by saying no, but by giving Jack the meanest purse-slapping anyone had ever experienced.  
  
"That's a no..." Jack says while peeling himself from the wall a few seconds later.  
  
"Don't make me have to hurt you too much, I don't need a limping, bleeding farmer to slow me down." Nami reminds him.  
  
"Oh, well I'm sorry for youhaving to hurt me." Jack says in a sarcastic tone.  
  
"Apology accepted."  
  
"What- I didn't mean... ugh, forget it."


	8. The Adventure: Part 2, The Meeting

(You can tell I'm running out of good title ideas, can't you? Ah, just a note: There's going to be some characters in this that you won't recognize (ie. Matthew). Now, they're not just completely made up and irrelevant to the story, they're actually... let's say, possibilities, to be in any HM game. Bear with me, their identities will be explained more in later chapters. Oh, and much thanks to my peeps at the HM Guild for letting me use these characters! And for the rest of you, send in those reviews! And yes, I'm now accepting unsigned reviews!)  
  
As they ran, Miro and Matthew were trying to be as silent as possible, which was difficult since it was around evening and small objects that could trip people were plentiful in the path. After the fifty-third trip- fall-and-hurt-yourself between the two, they decide to call it a night and set up a small, makeshift camp beside the path, in the cover of the trees.  
  
"Anything for food?" Matthew asks.  
  
"Don't you have some for yourself?" Miro replies. "I thought you would've."  
  
"Well, I do, but it's bracken and grasses mostly. I didn't have much time to raid the pantry back at my place."  
  
"Well, what was there that you could've taken?" Miro asks.  
  
"...Bracken and grasses." Matthew says, sighing. "My mom's a nature freak. Dad can sneak a steak in once in a while, but it tastes a bit off after he's smuggled it in his shirt."  
  
"Eugh..." Miro says, gagging. "I would've guessed it would. Anyway, I have some crops I snagged from the fridge and... Hey, where'd it..." He looks around through his rucksack for the missing food item. Perhaps he had dropped it. "Where's..." He sees it next to a tree: a chocolate bar. He wonders how it got there, but shrugs it off and approaches it. It moves away from him, though. Miro persues, followed by Matthew. The bar leads them away from the path, between trees, through bushes, until it finally stops at the base of what looked like a huge pile of chocolate, highlighted by a nearby campfire. Mouths watering, Miro and Matthew slowly approach their newfound treasure. After a second, though, Miro stops, going out of his hypnosis. Matthew moves past him, ignoring that Miro stopped. Miro thinks for a minute about how this kind of phenomenon could possibly happen, and suddenly realizes something.  
  
"Matthew, stop! It's a tra-" But it was too late. A random assortment of spears, arrows, and rocks flew at Matthew. Fortunately, all of them missed but a few rocks against random soft areas of his body. This was quite enough, though, and he fell backwards to the ground. As he was looking up, he saw something.  
  
"Miro... Up there, in the trees!" He says weakly. Miro looked up, ready to fight. He sees two shadowy figures standing perfectly balanced on a tree branch. Both of them had pink hair, so they were either female or extremely confused, but one was dyed and had red streaks going down it. Miro couldn't determine much else about them.  
  
"I told you we'd find him here." The one with pure pink hair said. "And look, he has a friend, too."  
  
"Who?" The other one asks. "That one?"  
  
"Yes, the red-haired little man. Red-haired... Wait a minute..." The person jumps from the branch and onto the pile of chocolate. Her face was still concealed by the shadow of the fire, but Miro could now determine that she was female. She wore ebony capris and had a star chain around her wrist, along with a dog-tag necklace. She also wore a pure black tee shirt with a pink trim, along with what Miro thought he saw to be a small pink heart on the right shoulder. He could only see it because the fire was crackling in that direction.  
  
"Hmm... oh, it's Miro!" She says in an enthusiasm that sounded slightly sarcastic. "How have you been?"  
  
"Who are you?" Miro asks, still in a fighting stance.  
  
"Relax. I'm sure you remember me. You met me back when you met this moron, remember?" She says, pointing to Matthew.  
  
"Hey!" Matthew says angrily, slowly getting up. "I'm no mor-!"  
  
With the click of a button, Matthew is caught up in a net below him and suspended in the air by it. The girl on the pile of chocolate simply throws the switch she had just used away, ignoring Matthew's protests. This is when Miro noticed something. She wore gloves, which were absolutely the same as his, only a shade of pink. Her name suddenly snaps in his mind.  
  
"Ricca!" He says. The girl sways her head so that the fire could show her face. Miro knew for sure now. It was Ricca, another person he had met before from out of town. She was also Miro's age, and held an almost Kate- like evil attitude towards him.  
  
"Glad you remember." Ricca says. "But you're not the one we're after. You can go."  
  
"Okay." Miro says, shrugging and turning around.  
  
"HEY!" Matthew yells from the net. "NO YOU CAN'T! GET BACK HERE!"  
  
"Why?" Miro asks, stopping.  
  
"Because, uhh... She still has your chocolate bar!"  
  
"Oh, right." Miro says, remembering and turning around to face Ricca again. "Id like that back, by the way."  
  
"Seems fair." The person in the tree says. "The chocolate bar for Matthew. How's that sound?"  
  
"Deal." Miro says. Matthew looked like he was about to kill Miro.  
  
"YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE!" He protests. Miro had already taken the chocolate bar and was walking away, but as he walked he spoke.  
  
"What exactly is the problem, Matt? You've been captured by two pink-haired girls with... interesting... outlines, we could say. I'm not seeing a downside here."  
  
Suddenly, the person on the tree jumped off and landed directly in front of Miro. Miro was right about her being a girl, as well. From what Miro could see, she wore a shirt that was red on top, blue on the bottom, with a white trim, and also a star in the middle.  
  
"Interesting?" She says, looking at Miro with angry sapphire eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"Interesting, as in likeable, as in 'opposite of cold', as in ho-"  
  
"Miro."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'M YOUR COUSIN!" She yells before slamming him in the chin with a severe uppercut, sending him above the treeline. Ricca stepped aside as Miro landed directly on the pile of chocolate. He remained there for a moment.  
  
"Wait..." He says finally. "I have a cousin?"  
  
"She's your distant cousin." Matthew says. "You have the same great- grandpa. Your parents were cousins. Tough to explain."  
  
"How did you know that?" Miro asks.  
  
"Because," Matthew says, sighing. "She's the one I'm trying to get away from."  
  
"Well, good job with that." Miro says sarcastically.  
  
"Good enough, anyway." The girl says, stepping onto the pile, and Miro, and staring at Matthew eye-to eye. "So, are you coming home or not?"  
  
"No chance! Not yet!" Matthew says, struggling at the ropes. "I still want to explore more! I've spent too much of my time in that deadbeat, do- nothing little town!"  
  
"Hmm... okay." The girl says. "You and your friend can keep going, but Ricca and I are coming with you."  
  
"What?!" Miro exclaims, still being stood on by the girl but able to breathe enough to protest. "I'm not letting fashion-trash doorknobs slow me down! I can't let you waste my time!"  
  
"Miro, quiet!" Matthew says, suddenly turning sides and being defensive for their captors. "They won't slow us down, especially not Anna!"  
  
"Anna?" Miro says, looking up to the one standing on him. "I remember that name... Oh, hey, you are my cousin!"  
  
"Duh." Anna says.  
  
"I haven't seen you in years, how're you doing?" Miro says.  
  
"Don't act nice just because you don't want me stepping on you."  
  
"Actually..." Matthew says. "He might want you to stay stepping on him. I mean, the small shirt with the stomach showing is enough, but the mini- skirt is..."  
  
Anna realized what he meant, and quickly stepped off of Miro, but not before delivering a flat stomp on his face.  
  
"Oooowwww..." Miro groaned. "I wasn't looking, dammit, she's my cousin!"  
  
Jack was lying down on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He wasn't sleeping, he was lying over the covers horizontally, letting his feet stay on the floor. He had run out of things to do, and didn't dare move much at the risk of Nami getting angrier than she already was at him.  
  
Nami herself had just finished packing her bag completely full, and walked over to Jack. Jack flinched and held his breath nervously, but Nami merely sat down next to him on the bed.  
  
"Jack, do you remember the day we got married?" She asks.  
  
"Wait, let me think... oh, oh yeah, when they had that cake all ready, that really big one that tasted like sawdust since it was left over from Galen and Nina's wedding."  
  
Nami sighs. "Yes, but did we care?"  
  
"No..."  
  
"And why not?"  
  
"'Cause I was already full from all of that rice they threw at us in the beginning."  
  
"...You ate the rice? Is that what you were doing with that soya sauce- ugh... never mind, why else?"  
  
"Umm... I don't know... I usually would've flipped out if something like that happened... Though, it might've had something to do with a weird feeling I had whenever I'd look at you."  
  
"Oh? What feeling was that?"  
  
"I'm not sure... Remorse, disgust, fear- OWW! What was that for?"  
  
"IT WAS LOVE!"  
  
"What, the feeling or you hitting me just now?"  
  
"The feeling! You didn't care about the cake because:" Nami says, waiting for Jack to finish the question.  
  
"Because... I... cared more about you?"  
  
"Right. And do you remember what you said to me?"  
  
"...No. Oh, wait, you mean the thing when I said-"  
  
"Yes, when you said 'Nami, if we ever have a child, I'll never let him out of my sight, and I'll absolutely never let him skip town until he's a full adult.'"  
  
"Oh, yeah! I remember tha- ...oops..." Jack says, realizing what she meant. "Well, those were different times, times have changed now, I mean, look," He sits up and looks around. He was looking for something that had changed over the past 15 years. "Look at, uhh... the house!"  
  
"What about the house?" Nami asks.  
  
"It's ... bigger." Jack claims.  
  
"Oh, of course, that makes perfect sense!" Nami says sarcastically. "It's okay that you let Miro go out on his own, even though you said that you wouldn't, because the house is bigger."  
  
"Uhh... exactly!" Jack says, nodding in agreement. Nami rolls her eyes and shoves a pillow into Jack's face, forcing him down on the bed.  
  
"Get some sleep." She orders. "We have a long walk ahead of us."  
  
Back at the campfire-and-chocolate-pile-in-the-forest, Miro was now standing, holding his bruised face while Matthew remained in the net, paitently waiting for someone to cut him loose.  
  
"Well, I suppose we can camp out here for the night." Miro says. "It's nearly midnight, and I know that neither Matthew or I are in any condition to keep going."  
  
"Fine," Ricca says. "We'll camp out here for now, set out again at seven, stop at noon for lunch and-"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, there." Miro interrupts. "Since when were you the head of this operation? I have to do this, I'm being chased and the people chasing me are closer than the ones chasing Matthew. Well, besides you two... Hey, why were you chasing him, anyway?"  
  
"Should we tell him?" Ricca asks, looking over to Anna, who was spending her time prodding the trapped Matthew with a stick, as Matthew did his best to ignore it.  
  
"Sure, it wouldn't hurt." Anna says, shrugging, putting the stick down, and leaning against the net. "Should I, or do you want to?"  
  
"We'll take turns." Ricca says. "I'll start. It all began when Matthew skipped town a few days ago. I myself wasn't worried, but Anna here was nearly blubbering."  
  
"Was not!" Anna says angrily. "But I did want to know where he went. So I packed up my things and got ready to go look for him. But there was one problem; he's the best sneak that I know, he could cover his trail easily. I needed help, so I went to the most conniving, skilled tracker I knew. But he asked for money, so instead I went to..."  
  
"Me." Ricca says proudly. "And I did my job, I found Matthew using nothing but my brain."  
  
"Wow, it's amazing how you could find him with such limited resources!" Miro says. Matthew laughs slightly, but both are hit upside the head and immediately shut up.  
  
"Anyway," Ricca continues. "I knew how childish people like Matthew think, and so I... 'collected' some chocolate from the market and piled it up right here. I then baited you with Miro's chocolate and the rest is history."  
  
"And now..." Anna says. "I can tell you all something."  
  
"What?" Miro and Matthew ask.  
  
"Well, since we're not going back to town, I know a place we can go." Anna begins.  
  
"We're listening." Miro says.  
  
"I remember, when I was just little, my Dad told me about a place far away from anywhere. He had gotten lost when he moved and wandered around for days until he came to a... well, I can't remember what it was, but from there he had shelter, he could resupply, and he could tell where the town was. I can't remember how he could do that, either..."  
  
"Well, can you remember where it is?" Matthew asks.  
  
"Umm... no."  
  
The rest of the group fell over backwards and sighed. Miro was the first to speak again.  
  
"Are you sure you don't remember? Is there a clue? A map? Something?"  
  
"Well..." Anna says, thinking. "I do remember my Dad saying something really mysterious about the location. 'The road to what I speak of, is engraved in the family lineage.'"  
  
"Lineage?" Matthew says, confused. Miro shuts his eyes in thought for a minute.  
  
"Well... What does the family all have in common? I see no resemblance between the two of us, Anna, so what could he mean...?"  
  
"I don't know." Anna says, shrugging.  
  
"Well, we can sleep on it." Ricca says. "Maybe we can figure it out tomorrow."  
  
"Agreed." Miro says, yawning. "Besides, I'm dead tired."  
  
They all laid out their sleeping mats and then laid themselves out on them. Well, all but one.  
  
"Umm, is anyone letting me out of this?" Matthew asks.  
  
"Nah," Ricca says.  
  
"Think of it like this," Miro explains. "You're the only one here who gets a hammock."  
  
"It's a pretty cramped hammock..." Matthew says. "But... okay, whatever. At least I won't have bugs crawling all over me."  
  
"Bugs, no. Bats, absolutely." Anna says, laughing slightly at the sudden expression on Matthew's face.  
  
"Just shut up and go to sleep." Ricca says. "Oh, and don't let the bed bugs... or whatever, bite."  
  
(There we are. Oh and note: The person named Anna in this is not the Anna of Friends of Mineral Town (Mary's mother), but you should already know that if you read even one word of the description. Just so there's no confusion about that. (I bet 98% of you didn't even know there was an Anna in FoMT before I mentioned it, but I'm just being safe here.) And remember, anonyamous reviews are now allowed!) 


	9. The Adventure: Part 3, The Encounters

(Note: I'm going to be away for two weeks, starting Friday, so I might not get around to making another chapter before then. I hope this keeps you until I get back!)  
  
_Miro's Log  
  
Date: Unknown. Sometime in the early Summer. Y'think I'd remember, the months are only 10 damn days long.  
  
Location: Forest  
  
We've spent the last few hours of the early day walking through some weatherbeaten path that we found off the main road. The trees are all over the place here... then again, it's a forest and that's to be expected. Anna told us that this pathway gave her 'good feelings' as to finding out the mystery of the place her father spoke of. She said simply to trust her. Ricca agrees with all of this, so it may not be complete made-up crap. Our supplies are... quite good, actually, never mind. We managed to bring every last bar from that chocolate pile with us by using the trap net, but I almost feel sorry for Matthew...  
_  
That reminded Miro to check behind him and see if Matthew was lagging behind.  
  
"You okay back there, Matt?" Miro asks him.  
  
"...PEACHY." Matthew says with every possible hint of sarcasm. He did, indeed, have the right to be in such a bad mood. On his back he carried along the entire mound of chocolate by means of the net he was trapped in earlier. They were bringing it along for the simple fact that it was, indeed, a pile of chocolate and far too precious to simply leave behind.  
  
"Okay, then." Miro says, shrugging. "I was gonna help out, but if you say you're doing okay..." He's suddenly struck from behind by a wayward chocolate bar.  
  
"Oww!" He says. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I wasn't actually gonna help!"  
  
"Quiet." Ricca suddenly says from in front of the two. "Do you hear that?"  
  
Miro listens for a second.  
  
"Sounds like... water. Must be a river nearby."  
  
"Perfect!" Anna, in front of the other three, exclaims. "I knew that we'd find one!"  
  
"What's so great about a river?" Matthew asks, breathing heavily due to his massive load.  
  
"It means that if we follow it we'll know what direction we're going, first of all." Ricca says. "So we won't get lost and we can find our way out of these trees."  
  
"We could've done that by following the path..." Miro sighs.  
  
Once they had reached the river, they decided to take a short rest near it's banks. This was to the relief of Matthew, who gladly put down his burden with a booming thud. The river was small, more of a stream, about 15 meters across. Everyone sat down, took a chocolate bar and rested.  
  
"Okay, let's go." Ricca and Miro both say. When they noticed, they both looked at each other coldly. It seems that they were both still silently arguing for the position of leader. The group stood up and took their bags, to the displeasure of Matthew, but before they were about to set off again, they heard a faint noise coming down the river.  
  
"What's that?" Matthew asks. Everyone else stood there, listening and watching for whatever it was. When it got closer, the sound could be determined. It was a voice, a female voice, singing. The words were clear by the time the person was in sight. Drifting down the river in a large inner tube was a near middle-aged woman with orange-red hair tied in one ponytail. The same shade of red as the non-dyed streaks in Anna's hair. She also wore overalls and a yellow T-shirt. The whole group could hear the song.  
  
"_-We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot.  
  
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!  
  
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot.  
  
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!  
  
Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me!  
  
We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack.  
  
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!  
  
Maraud and embezzle and even hijack.  
  
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!  
  
Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me!-_"  
  
Miro was the first to speak after an awkward silence.  
  
"...Is she mixing her meds or something?"  
  
"It looks like it." Matthew says. "That's Bodigizer overdose there. She must've gotten tired and took a dozen too many bottles to perk herself back up."  
  
"She has a habit of not reading the medicine labels..." Anna mumbles. Miro turns to look at her.  
  
"You know her?" He asks.  
  
"Yes..." Anna says, not currently proud of it.  
  
The woman turns her attention in their direction, seeing them for the first time. She stops singing and waves her arms in their direction.  
  
"Anna! Anna!" She yells, trying to paddle in their direction. Finally, she gives up on it and jumps into the water, swimming to them. When she reached the shore she runs up to Anna, smiling.  
  
"Anna, I found you! And I found her! And both of you found him! And he found him!" She says. "Are you okay? Are your eyes puffy, were the bugs too bad, do you feel dehydrated, are you broken?"  
  
"Mom!" Anna yells, shutting her up. "I'm fine, everyone's fine, but YOU took too much Bodigizer!"  
  
"Hmm, you're right." The woman says, scratching her chin. "I have a pill for when that happens, but... I lost it! So too bad for me! Now, c'mon Anna, I'm taking you all back to the town with those nice doctors!"  
  
"No, you're not." Anna says. "One of us here dosen't live in the town, and there's not enough of you to bring him and us back to our homes."  
  
"Hmm, you're right again..." The woman says, once again scratching her chin. She suddenly looks like she came up with a brilliant solution. "Oh, I know! I know what to do! I must inform base camp, I must tell base camp that you're here, there's more of them! They can bring you all back!" She turns around to hop back in her inner tube, but finds that it drifted away down the river. Shrugging, she instead runs off into the trees with a "Fweeee!"  
  
Blinking, Miro turns to look at Anna. The other two weren't as surprised, but still quite surprised enough. Miro opens his mouth to speak.  
  
"...Well, that was random... So you're telling me that she's..."  
  
"My mother." Anna says, nodding. "And your second-cousin. Or aunt, if it's easier to remember."  
  
"Hmm... Y'know, I kinda remember her, but..." Miro begins. "She wasn't like that, not bodigizer-hyped or anything, more like..."  
  
"A tomboy?" Ricca says.  
  
"Tch, no." Miro says, rolling his eyes. "Not even close. MY mom is a genuine, true-blue, all-out tomboy. But I guess if you've never seen my mom, that woman might look like one. What's her name, again? I used to know it..."  
  
"It's pretty easy to remember." Anna says. "Just take the second 'a' out of my name and there you have it."  
  
"Hmm." Miro says plainly. "Jee, that's creative."  
  
"Hey, she dropped something!" Matthew says, walking up to an object and picking it up. "It's a book. This might be useful to us." He opens it and begins flipping through the pages.  
  
"Whatever." Miro says. "Anyway, let's move. She said something about a base camp, it's probably more adults. We'd best not take a chance by staying here for too long."  
  
"You heard him, let's move!" Ricca says, the group beginning to walk again.  
  
"Indeed..." A voice mumbles to itself as they walked off. Something peered out at them from a bush, and in an instant vanished back into the forests.

---------------------------------------  
  
In the meantime, Nami was suited up and waiting outside with the family horse, which she had saddled her massive bag to. She was dressed for business, wearing over her usual outfit a leather jacket, chains here and there, black pants, and a biker helmet with shaded goggles.  
  
"Are you nearly done, Jack!?" She yells to the house. "I'm ready to start peeling rubber... err, horseshoe anytime!"  
  
"I'm not coming out!" Jack protests from inside.  
  
"What? Is it the outfit?" Nami asks.  
  
"YES!" Jack yells.  
  
"But you have to be in the outfit, it completes the whole ensemble!"  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"It completes the visual, it makes it look nice! It gives it a 'biker' theme!"  
  
"Okay, fair enough." Jack says. "But I'm the guy here, why aren't I wearing the leather and stuff?"  
  
"Two reasons: They'll never believe that you're the guy, and there's no way you're getting me into one of those in public!"  
  
"WELL, HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?"  
  
"You already have no social status, you have nothing to lose. Besides, it's not that bad."  
  
"WRONG! A hair bow: not that bad. Ponytails: not that bad. A long, frilly dress with nylons and garters: not that bad. A mini-skirt and pom poms: not that bad. But a two-piece swimsuit: THAT'S WHEN THE LINE IS CROSSED!!! I don't care what you say or do, I am NOT leaving the house like this!"  
  
Nami sighs and gives up. "Fine. Kill the moment for me. Pack it up with your things just in case, though."  
  
"In case WHAT?"  
  
"In case you get on my nerves during the trip."  
  
Jack swallows, and a few minutes later he had changed out of the questionable garb and into his usual outfit. Walking out, he goes up to the horse. Nami looks at him.  
  
"What? Aren't you gonna be creative, at least?" She asks, seeing him in his normal clothes.  
  
"This is creative." Jack replies. "I have my top button unbuttoned, see?"  
  
"Psh, like anyone's gonna notice that!" Nami says.  
  
"I bet you 200g that someone will." Jack offers.  
  
"Deal." Nami says. "Now let's go." She jumps up onto the horse.  
  
"Hey!" Jack says. "Who says you get to ride in the front?"  
  
"Everyone." Nami replies.  
  
"Who's everyone?" Jack asks. Nami points to the work force, who, most likely out of fear, all raise their hand.  
  
Jack grumbles for a moment, then realises something.  
  
"Hey, there's no room for me!"  
  
"You can sit on the bag." Nami points out.  
  
"Hmm... Looks like there's no other choice. I should've figured things like this would happen if I picked you over Celia or Muffy..." He climbs up to the top of the bag, a rather high height.  
  
"You're lucky you did," Nami reminds him. "'Cause if it was me who tried to kill you along with an evil teddy bear, it would've worked."  
  
"Yeah, I suppose... Hey, you ever notice that we haven't given the horse reigns yet?" Jack says.  
  
"We don't need them." Nami says. "The horse knows when to move. Now, let's go, Greaser!" She kicks the horse's sides and they finally set off, beginning the persuit of their son.

---------------------------------------  
  
A short time later, Miro and the group were continuing to walk along the side of the river, no one talking too much. Ricca wanted to look official by being stern and silent, Matthew was too busy reading the book (not to mention he was still carrying the chocolate mound), Anna was too busy trying to see what Matthew was reading and Miro never talked much, anyway. After a few moments, Matthew looked up from the book.  
  
"I believe that we can find some clues as to the whereabouts of Anna's father's discovery in this book. The only problen is that it's written in some mysterious code. Look at the title." He says, shutting the book and showing the front cover. "It reads: yrotsiH ylimaF ruO, or at least that's what I assume. The letters are also upside-down..."  
  
"Flip the book over." Miro and Ricca both say. Matthew does so. Suddenly the words were far simpler to decypher.  
  
"Wow! How did you know that? It was like I was reading the book upside-down before, but now..." He says in amazement. The two merely sigh, shaking their heads.  
  
"Well, now it reads: Our Family History." Matthew says. He then opens the book and begins reading into it more. Anna managed to get a good enough angle to read it, as well.  
  
About an hour later, Matthew discovered something important. He calls for a rest to show everyone. They sit in a circle, the book in the middle.  
  
"Everyone..." Matthew begins. "Miro, Anna, your family has an incredibly boring history."  
  
"Is that all you wanted to say?" Miro asks, him and Anna giving him an angry glance.  
  
"No, no," Matthew reassures them. "I've discovered something. Here." He points to the open page of the book. "It says that every member born into the family so far has gone through the exact same pattern of growth spurts as they grew up, the only difference in pattern being between the boys and the girls."  
  
"...So?" Miro asks, confused.  
  
"So, we have something here!" Matthew insists. "This is the big similarity in the family!"  
  
"How can growing up the exact same way have anything to do with finding out where the Place is?" Anna asks. Since the group did not know what their destination was called, they now referred to it as the Place.  
  
"Well..." Matthew says, thinking for a moment. "What physical difference do people have after a growth spurt besides height?"  
  
"Stretch marks?" Ricca suggests.  
  
Miro rolls his eyes. "Yeah, like that's got anything to so with-"  
  
"Just a minute." Matthew interrupts. "Ricca's actually got a point. If you all grew the same way... and if you're all about the same body size... you must have the same stretch marks!"  
  
"Okay, we'll see." Miro says, grunting and standing up. He removes his shirt and faces his back to the others. The other three move closer and stare at the lined patterns on his back in awe.  
  
"Oh, my..." Matthew begins.  
  
"What the...?" Anna says, trailing off.  
  
"It's a map!" Ricca says in amazement.  
  
"Really?" Miro asks, trying to look behind him. "Is it the right one? Will it work?"  
  
"Yes, it's the right one." Matthew says. "But... it's only half a map, it seems. This won't be enough, the trail's cut off before it reaches the end."  
  
"Well, didn't you say that the growth pattern in the family was different between girls and boys?" Ricca asks Matthew, looking over to him.  
  
"Yes, that's right..." Matthew says. "It might be the other half. Well, that leaves us with one option." They both look over to Anna, who stares back at them. Matthew clears his throat.  
  
"Anna, take your shirt off."  
  
Less than one second later, Matthew was face-flat on the ground, twitching in pain, with half a dozen fresh lumps on his head. Anna had stopped there only because Miro and Ricca were holding her back.  
  
"Anna, calm down!" Ricca tells her. "We need to do this, or we'll never find the Place!"  
  
"Yeah, and we need Matthew in good condition to carry around our chocolate supply!" Miro adds in.  
  
Anna stops fighting to get to Matthew and sighs. "Fine. But I'm only pulling the back of the shirt up and I want you and Matthew GONE when I'm doing it."  
  
"Fine, fine, we're outta here. Ricca, just trace the other half of the map on paper and we can connect the two later. Just shout when you're done." Miro says. He lets go of Anna, puts his shirt back on, picks up the lethargic Matthew and drags him away deep into the trees.  
  
When they were a reasonable distance away, Miro let Matthew drop and leaned himself against a tree, waiting. He looked around carelessly as he waited and sighed, getting slightly bored. There were a lot of shadows in this area, so much tree cover that it nearly seemed like night. Just as Miro was about to shut his eyes, he hears something. As he turned in it's direction, two shadows, moving too quickly for Miro to determine, swooped to the unconscious Matthew and snatched him up, immediately going back into the woods. Miro ran in their direction and stopped, trying to see where they went. They had stopped moving about 20 feet in front of him, but there was too much shadow for Miro to see what they were. He could, however, see one red light on either of them where their foreheads seemingly were. One moved up to Miro faster than he could react to and struck him. Everything went dark.  
  
When he woke up a few minutes later, Miro noticed that Matthew and the shadows were gone. He immediately sprang to his feet and ran to where the others were, hoping that he wasn't too late. As he emerged into the riverside, he spoke.  
  
"Anna, Ricca, something's hap-" But he's cut off by a row of knuckles hitting the top of his head.  
  
"You were supposed to wait!" Ricca says, being the one that punched him.  
  
"But... you're finished!" Miro says, noticing that this was true. Anna was standing there, watching the scene and resisting the urge to laugh.  
  
"It dosen't matter, you should've waited until we gave you the all clear!" Ricca retorts. "Hmm... Hey, where's Matthew?"  
  
"That's what I came here for!" Miro yells, holding his head. "Somebody... stole him!"  
  
"What?" Anna says, looking suddenly concerned.  
  
"Two things, I don't know what, they just up and snatched him away! And then one of them knocked me out and they left!" Miro explains.  
  
"Hmm..." Ricca says. "Well, let's keep moving. With any luck he'll show up."  
  
"What?" Miro says.  
  
"We can't just leave him!" Anna protests. "He's why we came out here in the first place! He carries the chocolate around! He's..."  
  
"Hmm, a pause in mid-scentence." Miro notices.  
  
"And a look of sudden care and concern." Ricca says, both nodding.  
  
"Not to mention she really dosen't want to leave him behind, so the conclusion must be..." Miro says.  
  
"Yes," Ricca says, nodding. "Which means an incoming expression of emotion in 3..."  
  
"2..."  
  
"1..." Both cover their ears at this moment.  
  
"MATTHEW!!!" Anna yells to nothing, hoping blindly that he would come back. It rattled everything nearby and sent birds flying out of their trees in a panic. She repeats this about two dozen times before falling to her knees in tears.  
  
"...Is it safe yet?" Miro asks.  
  
"What? I think so." Ricca says. Both unplug their ears and sigh. Suddenly, Anna gets back up and inhales again.  
  
"MA-" But she is cut off by a large object being flung from the trees and smashing into her, both falling into the river. In an odd mix of a gasp of surprise and a sigh of relief, Miro and Ricca move to the riverside, checking on Anna.  
  
"You okay there?" Miro asks. Anna was in the shallow end of the river, just off the shoreline, and was partially underneath a limp object.  
  
"Hey, it's Matthew!" Ricca says.  
  
"Wow, that saves us some time." Miro says. "Let's get them out of there."  
  
A few minutes later, they were surrounding the still-unconscious Matthew at the riverside.  
  
"I wonder why they gave him back?" Miro says.  
  
"Anna's yelling was probably too much for them." Ricca points out. Anna's face goes slightly red.  
  
"Well... do you think he's okay?" She asks, changing the subject. "Is he going to wake up?"  
  
"Oh, of course." Miro says, standing up. "My dad taught me a great way to wake someone who's passed out." Stepping next to Matthew, he pulls one foot back and kicks him in the head.  
  
"OWW!" Matthew yells, suddenly getting up. "What was that for?!"  
  
"Matthew!" Anna says happily, clinging to him and quite nearly crushing him with her strength. He blinked in confusion but decided to simply go along with it. Once she had let go, and Matthew could breathe again, he speaks.  
  
"Umm... what happened?"  
  
"You were kidnapped... for a few minutes." Miro says. "They gave you back, just to shut Anna up. Don't you remember anything?"  
  
"No, the last thing I remember is asking Anna to..." Matthew trails off, but begins again. "Speaking of which, did we get the other half of the map?"  
  
"Yep." Ricca says. "I have it traced out."  
  
"Okay, then." Miro says. "But... I think we should start moving again. This place isn't safe. C'mon." He picks up his bag and begins walking. The others follow suit, taking their things and continuing up the riverside to their destination.


	10. Part 4, The Long Awaited Time

(That's right, people, I'm back! I'm not gonna waste any time, so without further adieu, here's Chapter 10!)

Later that day...

It was evening. Miro and the others would walk for one more hour before they stopped for the night. As they went, the number of trees finally began to thin down, and was replaced by grasses and shrubs. They were finally out of the forest.

"Whew, this is sure nicer." Anna says, looking around. "We can see things way better now."

"Yeah, I guess." Miro says, shrugging. He remained relatively quiet during the trip, as did Matthew. Miro's genes prevented him from being the most expressive in the world, but he rather liked it that way. Why talk unless it's something important?

"Well..." Ricca says. "Since we're clear of the trees now, this will be a good time to rest." No one disagreed with this. They were rather tired from all of this walking, and quickly unloaded all of thir supplies for the night.

----------------------------------------

Jack was bouncing along with the horse's movements as Nami steered it down the main path. She was very serious about getting her son back, and it showed. She drove the horse like an insane five year-old with a go-cart chasing after small animals. Jack attempted to warn her about riding like this, but he was too preoccupied trying to keep his balance on the bag he was perched on while Nami was driving a flaming streak down the pathway. After a few more minutes of this, the horse suddenly slows, more and more until it came to a total stop. The two dismount the horse.

"What's the problem, Greaser?" Nami says in a bit of frustration. Jack walks around it, finally opening it's mouth as though inspecting the hood of a car.

"Hmm..." He says, shutting Greaser's mouth and turning to Nami. "The horse broke down. And I don't see a gas station anywhere near here, so I guess we'll be walking it the rest of the way."

"Greeeat." Nami says, pulling her bag off of Greaser and slinging it over her shoulder. "That's just like Takakura, getting you a low-warranty horse. Of course, it's your fault too, trusting your finances to an old guy with huge eyebrows that smells like garlic bread."

"Of course, it would have to be my fault." Jack says, the two of them beginning to walk down the path. "That horse is only for local travel, and yes, Tak smells a bit off, but he's pretty much the only guy who ever knew my dad, so he has that going for him."

"Well, didn't you know your dad?" Nami asks.

"Well..." Jack begins. "Kinda. Back in the city, he was always working in the basement with Tak. They were raising animals in there. Mostly pidgeons and rats, since that's all the city has. Then one day I went downstairs and gave them an idea: To actually farm outside the city. That way they would have more room, more animals, and they wouldn't have to try and grow crops in the cracks on the floor using a 50 watt bulb."

"Really?" Nami says. "Jee, I can see where you get it from..."

"Get what?"

"Err, nothing."

They continue to walk down the path, keeping an eye out for any fresh signs of their son.

----------------------------------------

The group was resting normally enough, Matthew reading further into the rather dull history of Miro's family, Anna reading over his shoulder, looking for whatever Matthew seemed to find so interesting, and not finding it, Ricca on the branch of a nearby tree, scouting silently for anything suspicious, and Miro looking into the fire they set up, exploring the back of his angsty, teenage mind in silent meditation. Suddenly, however, Miro stands up.

"Hmm? What is it?" Matthew asks, looking away from the book and over to Miro, Anna doing the same.

"I think I'm gonna have a little walk." Miro says, turning from the fire.

"Don't use up too much energy, remember, you'll be having a big walk with the rest of us in the morning." Ricca says from the tree. Miro nods and walks out of the firelight without another word.

He himself wasn't even sure why he was doing this. He just knew that there was something he had to do that night. Something beckoned him off. As he walked up the riverside, he looked around slightly, as if wandering in a dream. Finally, after about a minute, he stops and turns his gaze to the water. In the moonlight, the clear water sparkled like a stream of white diamonds, flowing out into...

'Waaaait a minute...' Miro thinks to himsef, his eyes narrowing. 'This rings a bell... I've done this before, staring into the water, minding my own business, and then suddenly...'

"HYAH!" He yells, whipping around in a karate stance, prepared this time for the surprise. He remains in the stance for a few seconds. He looks left, and then right. Nothing. He relaxes and lets a sigh escape, turning back to the water. Perhaps this time he would actually be able to enjoy the hypnosis of the water without-

"HI MIRO!"

Before crashing on cue into the water, Miro lets out a surprised noise that was something between "YAY!" and "CRAP!". Once he was safely clinging to the shoreline again, he looks up to the one that gave him this shock on more than one occasion.

"KATE!" He yells, trying to sound angry. "I... You're... Why the heck can't you just tap my shoulder like normal people?!"

"I could, but what fun would that be?" She replies, holding out a hand to pull him out. Miro shakes his head.

"No way, I'm not falling for that again!" He says. "I'll get out by myself, thank you very-"

Before Miro finished, Kate's paitence ended and she grabbed Miro's arm, yanking him out of the water and placing him on the ground.

"I don't feel like messing around with you, don't worry." She says. "Oh, and..." in another quick movement, Kate pulled the blue ribbon that Miro had found in the woods earlier from his pocket.

"This is mine." She says.

"I know it's yours!" Miro replies. "That's why I hung on to the thing, you wore two of them in your hair when you were a kid."

"I know you knew." Kate says, shrugging. "Or at least I know now. But... how did you know? It looks like any other ribbon, dosen't it?"

"Well... I recognized the length and shade of blue it was and... Wow, that's weird... I dunno, I guess it just stuck to my mind."

"Oh, that's so... creepy." Kate says, looking at him strangely. "Anyway, let's get back to your camp."

"Uh, sure." Miro says.

When they had reached the camp, the rest of the group looked over to them, the same question obviously on their minds.

"...Oh, right." Miro says, noticing their looks. "This is Kate, a... neighbour from the Valley. Kate, this is-"

"Matthew, Anna, and Ricca." Kate says, pointing to each of them. "I know, I've been following you guys for the last little while. I was in the bushes back when you all met that phycho red-haired woman."

"Oh." Matthew says plainly.

"Then were you one of those people that attacked me and Matthew a while after that?" Miro asks.

"What? No, I don't even think I saw anyone like that..." Kate replies.

"Well, if the introductions are all done, let's do something productive." Ricca says, still not off of the tree. "Like baking something, or, I dunno, **sleeping**."

"No need to be sarcastic, Ricca." Matthew says. "We're all friends here."

"Right." Miro says, glancing over to Kate. "...Friends."

"Right." Kate says, crossing her arms.

"Hmph." Miro says, transferring to his less friendly attitude and facing away from Kate, crossing his arms and walking away slightly.

"Hmph." Kate returns, also looking away from him and walking off. Both take very determined steps away from one another at first, the others simply watching, but then their pace begin to slow. Finally, both of them come to a lurching stop, still facing away from each other, though. Miro looked like was struggling against something, clenching his teeth and giving a frustrated growl. Kate looked about the same. Miro began tightening his fists, and finally...

"Grr...rrrr....gahh...rrmm...- Oh, who the hell am I kidding?!"

He and Kate finally ignore their stubborn sides, turn around and run toward each other, immediately locking in a well-deserved, perfectly-excecuted, and long-awaited kiss.

Later that... week...

Miro and Kate finally part from the tremendous kiss, both looking dazed and more happy than anyone had seen them. Matthew, Anna, and Ricca were playing marbles to pass the time as they waited for them to finish, and looked up when they noticed that they were.

"That's... gotta be a record!" Miro says, practically bouncing with joy.

"Yep, you passed the record three days ago." Ricca says in a bored tone. "Now if your trip to Lipsville has come to a complete stop, we have a lot of time to make up for." She gets up quickly, after winning the Marbles game with a single well-placed flick, and motioned for the others to do so as well. Anna and Matthew obey, stretching and yawning.

"Jee, you sound a bit bitter, Ric." Miro says, laughing slightly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ricca asks, glaring at him.

"COUGHTHIRDWHEELCOUGH." Matthew says, the others trying to stifle their laughter. "Ugh, man, I don't feel so good today." He adds sarcastically.

"Here, lemme make it WORSE!" Ricca yells, driving her fist four inches into his gut. He crashes to the ground like a deck chair and the others immediately shut up.

"Okay, somebody drag along that twitching lump and pack up supplies, LET'S MOVE!"

----------------------------------------

"Aha!" Jack proclaims, running through the trees to something he had seen.

"What is it now?" Nami asks, walking along behind him with a frustrated look on her face. "You've gotten us lost for four days with one of your 'Aha!'s, which brought us off the path, thank you very much. What is it this time?"

"I've found it!" Jack says, pointing. "I found the path again!"

"Well, it's a start." Nami mumbles, catching up to Jack and stepping back on the path. They look around where they were, seeing some familiar trees, bushes, and Greaser nibbling on the grass nearby. Nami gives Jack a cold stare.

"We're right back where we started!" She yells, hitting him on the back of the head.

"Oww..." Jack moans, rubbing his soon-to-be lump. "Well, at least... Hey, wait, look!" He walks to the other side of the path and bends down, looking at the dirt.

"What is it?" She asks.

"I'm not sure, take a look at it." He says. Nami walks over to where Jack was and looks as well. There were prints on the ground.

"He was here." Nami says. "I can tell by his shoeprint. And..." She walks farther off the path, following the trail. "...There's a different set here, too. He's with somebody, now. The tracks go off into the woods. I guess we'd better follow them. C'mon, let's move!" She starts walking off, following the trail. Jack follows, but spots something in the corner of his eye. He turns his head to look at it. It was another footprint, but it was different from the others. The top half looked normal, but instead of a bottom half, the only thing there was a small dot of a heel. In fact, it almost looked like... a high-heel.

"...Naah." Jack finally says, shrugging it off and turning to catch up with Nami.


	11. Part 5, The Strange Day

"I'd give up my sight for you."

"I'd give up all of my posessions for you."

"I'd give up my left hand for you."

"I'd give up my whole arm for you."

"I'd give up both of my arms for you."

"I'd give up my legs for you."

"I'd give up my life for you."

"I'd give up my soul for you."

"I'd give up my... skin pigmant for you."

"What?"

"Sorry, I'm starting to run out of ideas."

"Oh, don't worry. Let's just start from the beginning again."

"For the... twenty-seventh time?"

"Yes."

"Okay, and you know what?"

"What?"

"It sounds sweeter every time. Now where were we...?"

Ricca, Anna, and Matthew have spent the last five hours listening to this sort of nauseatingly, vomit-inducingly romantic garbage-talk from the back of the group and not one of them wasn't at least sporting one twitching eye and a facial expression similar to someone suffering from a pinched nerve. Finally, Matthew walks close to the other two and speaks quietly.

"Okay, this is getting WAY out of hand, people." He says through clenched teeth.

"Ugh, I know." Anna says, gagging. "They've been at it for... how long, now?"

"Five hours, seventeen minutes and fourty-two seconds..." Ricca says. "And I've been forcing myself not to strangle them since hour one, minute twenty."

"We have to do something about this." Anna says.

"Yeah, we need the quiet, dark, insensitive, bad-attitude Miro back." Matthew says. "My plan is... we kill the girl."

"Sounds good to me." Ricca agrees.

"No, no!" Anna says, shaking her head. "Miro would hate us and besides, where would we hide the body?"

"I saw a good ditch a couple of hours back." Matthew suggests. Anna shakes her head again.

"No, no killing!" She says. "We just have to do something to trigger Miro's dark side again."

"How?" Ricca asks. "With that Kate girl around, he's as happy as Sephiroth in a fangirl convention. How can we snap him out of that?"

"Well..." Anna begins. "...I'm not sure. But I'm sure we'll think of something. Soon."

"We can only pray." Matthew mumbles. "It's just a matter of time before I totally lose grip of my sanity..."

---------------------------------------------

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Are we there ye-" Jack's continued questioning is cut of with a well-aimed strip of duct tape, courtesy of Nami.

"We'll be there when we find them, won't we?" She asks. Jack nods, unable to speak due to the tape.

"Well, do you see them?" Nami asks. Jack shakes his head.

"Well, that means we're not there yet!"

Jack gives a muffled 'oh' and they continue walking along. Nami was very much adept at wilderness hiking like this, but Jack was having difficulty keeping up with the pace. The fact that he could only breathe through his nose since the tape was placed snugly over his mouth wasn't helping matters, either. Finally, he tapped her shoulder and pointed to the tape. Understanding, Nami forcefully tore the tape off of Jack's face. If he had a mustache, he didn't anymore.

"Oww..." Jack says, holding his face, but happy that he could breathe well again. He turns to look at Nami.

"Thanks, but you didn't have to be so- oof!" He says, cut off by suddenly colliding into something going the direction opposite him, falling backwards due to the impact. At first he thinks that it was an animal, but as he looks up to check, he sees something incredibly strange.

"Nami... What am I looking at...?" He asks slowly, not taking his eyes away from the thing, and it doing the same. It looked to be a mirror image of Jack, the same height, face, and dumbfounded expression. The only difference visible was the fact that this person wore a blue cap, and had a huge, solitary tuft of hair sticking out of it at a nearly supernatural angle. Jack and the other simply stare for a second, blinking, and suddenly this newcomer shoots upright and takes off through the woods, quickly lost to sight.

"What... What was that?" Nami asks, for once in her life completely clueless.

"I'm not sure..." Jack says, remaining on the ground.

"Should we go after him?" Nami asks.

"I don't think so." Jack says. "I don't want to lose the trail, and... I have a feeling we might be meeting him again soon." He gets up, dusting himself off and continuing to walk.

---------------------------------------------

"The map says that we cross this bridge." Ricca says, doing her best to ignore the continued flirtings from the back of the group. "And then, we stop following the river and start walking through the fields."

"Ah, a nice walk in the ever-stretching beauty of the fields." Miro says, his eyes fixed on Kate. "Maybe today I can find a lone flower, and give it to you to match your own beauty."

"You don't have to do that for me." Kate replies. "Just walkling with you would make the grass seem greener, and the air smell sweeter. Be with me."

"I will."

"Okay..." Matthew says, looking absolutely sick at the cheezey, godawful lines being exchanged. "Going... to puke... Gimme a minute..."

"Hey, y'know what?" Ricca says. "Why don't you two cross the bridge first?"

"Gladly." Miro says, him and Kate strolling up to the bridge and beginning to cross it. Behind them, Ricca pulls a large baseball bat from her backpack and runs at them, aiming a swing. Suddenly, Matthew grabs the bat, holding back Ricca's swing. He shakes his head at her, but then yanks the bat from her hands and runs at them himself, ready to strike. Anna then interferes, holding back Matthew's swing. She takes the bat away from him and throws it away, signalling for him to watch. She quickly approaches them and, as Miro had his head turned to the water, she kicks him over the side of the bridge, quickly running to return to the others.

"What was that all about?" Matthew asks her quietly.

"Miro wasn't looking, and I don't think he noticed me, so he'll think that Kate did it." Anna explains.

"And with any luck, that'll trigger his dark side, right?" Ricca says. "Well, it might work. Let's see."

Kate ran to the side of the bridge, looking over to Miro.

"Miro! Oh, are you okay?" She asks worriedly.

Spitting out some water, Miro looks up at her.

"Fine as your dress billowing in the spring breeze as you come running, my juicy apple of affection." He replies, happily pulling himself from the water at the other side of the river.

"Crap." The other three mumble in frustration.

"He dosen't even care!" Matthew says. "I can't believe this, he dosen't even care!"

"What's it gonna take to snap him out of this?" Anna says.

"There's a pretty big rock right there by the riverbed." Ricca offers. "We just drop it over the girl's head, it's all over."

Matthew nods at this. "Okay, I'll go get-"

"I said no killing!" Anna loudly reminds them. "There's plenty of other things we haven't tried yet. We just have to think..."

And so they did, for an hour of walking, and then two, and then about another half. Finally, it was almost evening and the group decided to take a rest. Anna, Matthew, and Ricca sit together in a circle.

"Think of anything yet?" Matthew asks.

"Nope." Ricca replies, shaking her head.

"Nothing." Anna says, doing the same.

"Ugh, me neither..." Matthew says, sighing. "It looks like our only option is to snuff Kate."

"Agreed, finally." Ricca says.

"...Oh, okay." Anna says, giving up. "What should we use?" Pulling off her backpack, Anna dumps out a huge assortment of knives, swords, grenades, and portable nuclear devices. Ricca and Matthew look to the pile, and then to her in speechless shock.

"What?" Anna asks. "A girl's got to be prepared."

"..."

"What?"

"Uhh... nothing." Matthew says, blinking. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he spots something walking towards them, slowly. Without making sudden movements to arouse suspicion, he leans to the others and whispers.

"We have company."

Ricca nods, and turns her eyes slowly to what Matthew had seen. Suddenly, her expression became blank.

"Sorry, guys, but I'll have to split for a while." And without another word, Ricca got up and dashed away, lost to sight down the side of a hill.

"What was that all about?" Anna wonders out loud. Matthew shrugs.

"I don't know, but if it's enough to spook Ricca, we'd better get the jump on it."

Both nod, and leap up quickly, each grabbing a sword and facing the figure. Noticing that it was noticed, it walks toward them faster. From what they could see, it was a tanned man with a deceptively friendly face, with something concealed behind his back.

"You got some reason to be here?" Matthew asks, pointing his sword over to him.

"Yep." The man replies. "To bring you kids back home."

Suddenly, Anna and Matthew realise who the man was, and ready their swords quickly.

"We aren't going back, not yet!" Anna yells.

"You'll have to fight us!" Matthew adds.

"Hahahaha! Fine, this should be a blast!" The man says, pulling from behind him his weapon of choice, a large fish. "En garde!" He says, holding it out like a sword.

Anna and Matthew run at him, Matthew reaching him first. He swung his sword two times at the man, both times deflected by his skillful fish-handling. With a twirl, the man disarmed Matthew with relative ease, his sword landing a distance away. Quickly, Anna jumped in, with a stabbing motion. The man dodged, however, and after a short while of trading blows, also disarms Anna. The two of them back away from the man.

"Now, you stay there." He says. "And keep away from those weapons. I just have to make sure your friends don't get in my way, either."

With that, he came charging toward Miro and Kate, who were, so far, oblivious to the battle that had commenced seconds before due to looking at nothing but one another. When the man was only a few paces away, Miro finally caught sight of him, his fish raised, ready to strike.

"Kate, watch out!" Miro yells, quickly putting himself between her and the man. He pays for this action dearly, however, as the man strikes him solidly across the face with the large, slimy fish.

All was still for a moment. The side of Miro's face was dripping with the fish's cold, wet slime, and his face was turned due to the impact. Suddenly, a chill gust of wind blew through the fields, dying down until all was silent again.

"Miro...?" Kate says quietly.

"Y...You okay, man?" Matthew asks.

"No one..." Miro begins, turning his head back to the man slowly. "and I mean no one... smacks me with A FISH!" Another gust of wind blows by, stronger this time, making the man back off slightly.

"Oh..." Matthew says. "That did it. I think we've got dark Miro back."

"He looks angry." Anna says. "I wouldn't want to be the one holding the fish right now."

"Let's give him a hand." Matthew says. "Pick up a sword, we'll throw them to him."

"Got it. Hey, Miro, catch!" Anna says, she and Matthew throwing him one sword each. Miro catches them both, brandishing them in front of the man.

"Let's have some fun." He says. They both suddenly come at one another, Miro handling the two swords as easily as if he were two people. The man's fishmanship was skillful too, but he didn't have enough time between blocking to find an opening in Miro's defense, if you could call it that. Finally, without second thought, the man lunges at Miro with the fish in a final stab. However, Miro countered by twirling his blades so quickly that when the fish went into them, it was sliced and sliced until there was nothing but the handle that the man held, and a huge pile of sushi on the ground.

The man staggered back, dropping the fish-tail that was all that was left of his weapon, and looked at Miro.

"This... isn't over!" He says. "Next time, the whole group's gonna be here, and you'll be going right back where you belong!" With that, he quickly ran away, which was quite pathetic-looking since they were in a rolling field and could see everything from miles around with no tree cover.

"The whole group...?" Miro mumbles, dropping the swords and rubbing his hands together. "I wonder..."

"Miro, you did it!" Kate says from behind him, jumping onto his back. "You saved me, thank you! How can I ever-"

"Shove off, girly!" Miro says, throwing her off of him. "I wasn't protecting you, I just wanted first crack at the guy! Now c'mon, we're burning daylight standing around here! And besides, it isn't safe to hang around here much longer, move it!" He throws his things into his bag and picks it up, beginning to walk.

"Hmph, all right, fine!" Kate says, packing up and starting to walk. "It's not like I actually needed you to stop the guy, anyway! If you'd just given me a second, I would've had him beat in half the time it took your slow-"

"Well..." Matthew says, looking at the scene. "Everything's back to nornal, I guess. Fighting, yelling, stubbornness-"

"And Miro got slapped by a fish." Ricca adds, suddenly appearing right beside him and Anna. "So all's well that ends well."

"I'm just glad we can finally relax a bit on this trip." Anna says. "If they ever shut up, that is..."


	12. Part 6, A Whole Lotta 'Splaining

(Okay, firstly I want to thank all of you for your reviews. Your compliments are much appreciated and I'm glad that you like my writing. Rest assured that I'll keep this story going until I've sucked every pint of creative juice from my skull. In thanks for your support I am glad to present to you the so-far longest, and one of the most important chapters in the fic plot-wise, Chapter 12!)

Walking on their lazy way to the destined Place, guided by a map drawn from stretch marks, Miro and the others walk across the sunlit plains in the early evening. It would be one or two more hours before they stop for the night, but all agreed that they should spend as much time walking as possible. They had met a strange tanned man earlier, and he spoke of others being involved in finding and bringing them all back home, including the man himself. However, a more direct riddle kept them occupied for now.

"What the heck happened to Miro today?" Anna asks the others. Miro, within earshot, crossed his arms and pretended to not hear what they were saying.

"Hmm... Actually, this one's got me stumped, too." Ricca admits. "It seems like he was a totally different person up until he was blackjacked by that fish. What could've happened to him?"

"I have a theory." Matthew suggests. "It's a combination of things I found in the book, and my own knowledge of human behavior."

"Okay, let's hear it." Ricca says.

"With pleasure." Matthew says. "You see, Miro's family has a history of being open, and rather... I suppose you could call it silly, romantics."

"That dosen't sound like Miro." Anna says.

"But it does sound like you." Ricca says, smirking.

"Hey! You don't know that!" Anna says.

"Uh-huh..." Ricca says in sarcastic agreement, looking over to Matthew.

"...What?" Matthew says. "Err, anyway... If Miro's mother was a major, antisocial outsider-type-person, that would counter his father's genes and create the child that you see before you today. Obviously, Miro's outward personality is more like his mother that way. This caused an unnatural build-up in his father's genes inside him, allowing for his affection for Exhibit B over there," He points to Kate, who also tried to ignore them. "to build up inside of him, more and more until finally..."

"His mom's side finally gave way in that giant spit-sharing fest." Ricca finishes. "I get it, so Miro really does have two sides. And that's why he was acting so violently romantic all day."

"Yes, two conflicting sides." Matthew says. "But maybe there's a way to put both sides at peace, and not have something like that happen again."

"That still dosen't explain why Kate started doing it, too." Anna says.

"Hmm..." Matthew says, scratching his chin. "Well, it's possible that being around Miro for your entire life could cause a build-up similar to his."

"Wait..." Anna begins. "You mean it's actually UNHEALTHY to be around Miro?!"

"Is it really that surprising?" Ricca says.

"Only for an extended period of time." Matthew says. "About ten years or so, and only if it's during the growing stages of your life, so we're pretty much safe."

"Whew, good." Anna says. "You had me scared for a second there."

"Okay, one more thing," Ricca says. "How exactly did Miro go back to normal through the process of being slapped by a fish?"

"That's a tough one..." Matthew admits. "...Maybe his mother's genes regained a hold of his personality when something that would seriously bug him happened, such as the fish."

"But I kicked him into a river, why wouldn't that bug him?" Anna asks.

"...I don't know." Matthew admits.

"I do." Miro admits, sighing. "I've grown used to being pushed, thrown, startled or kicked into bodies of water, it's nearly day-to-day for me. Thank goodness that that guy came and snapped me out of it, I had no control whatsoever."

Back at the chasing side...

"Hey, it's a river!" Jack says, seeing and hearing it a short distance away. He was glad for this, since it meant clean water and the possibility of a rest.

"Hmm, this is good." Nami says. "Miro and whoever's with him follow along it for as far as I can tell. Also, since we left, the number of different tracks has increased from two to four, so he's in a group."

"Oh, good." Jack says. "So he's safe?"

"Or he's been kidnapped and the kidnappers allow him full access to a huge surplus of chocolate." Nami says. "There's wrappings everywhere, and someone is carrying it with them since one set of tracks seems to be two hundred and fifty-or-so pounds, and nobody could hike so far if they weighed that much normally."

"Okay." Jack says. "Now, can we take a rest?"

"...If you must." Nami says. "But not a long one, we have-"

"-to cut the rest short, I'm afraid." Says a voice from behind them. They turn around, spotting a shape in the trees, two lenses glistening in the sunlight on the shape's face.

"Who are you?" Nami asks.

"All will be answered." The shadow's feminine voice reassured them. "But you must hurry. Come, follow me."

It slid off into the forest. Jack and Nami shrug, following along.

They couldn't tell much of what the person looked like yet, the trees were too thick and the person moved too fast for them to get a good view. Finally after a few minutes, they reach a small clearing, half darkened by the evening shadow.

"We're here." The woman says. Jack stops, relieved, and looks around.

"What? There's nothing here." Jack says.

"Oh?" Comes another voice from inside the blackened half of the clearing. Four people step out of the shadow and into plain sight, one who they noticed right away.

"Hmm, hey, it's the one with the hat that we saw earlier." Nami says.

"Yep." The guy replies. "Sorry for running off, but I had to go tell the others."

"About what? Who are you?" Nami asks in a bit of frustration.

"Allow us to explain." A solemn-looking man with a cap turned to cover one eye says. "Our children have run off as well as yours, I believe. They have so far evaded us, but we have an operative out who will be returning any moment-"

At that exact time, a tanned person ran up, tripped on a stray root and fell, landing in front of the others. A purple cloth fluttered to the ground beside him.

"Oh, there you are, Kai." A pink-haired woman said, kneeling beside him to make sure he was alive. "Did you get them?"

"No..." The man called Kai said. "I almost had them, but there was one that I didn't recognize..." He gets up into a sitting position, obviously exhausted. "Red hair, really stern, didn't smile... YOU!" He says, seeing Nami and scuttling away in fear. "YOU'RE THE ONE!"

"Oh, then it must be Miro!" Jack says happily.

"So it is your son?" The man that they had met before said, adjusting his hat and walking up to them. "Well, that's good, at least now we know... Hey, wait a minute..." He walks up to Jack, very close, and looks at him from every angle.

"What is it, Jack?" A red-haired woman asks.

"JACK?!" Jack says, startled. "But that's my name!"

"What?" The other Jack says, confused. "But... Oh, my..."

Jack (the first one) suddenly realizes who this man is.

"Oh, wow, it's my long-lost cousin with the same name!" He says, both giving each other a hug. "How have you been?"

"I got a farm!"

"Me too!"

"I got mine from a dead guy!"

"Me too!"

"I had an old person explain to me how the farm worked even though he had never farmed a day in his life!"

"Me too!"

"I married a red-haired tomboy with blue eyes who dresses slightly like a man and had a red-haired kid with her who's on the run from us currently in search of a destiny of some sort and now I'm trying to get the kid back!"

"...Me too!"

"That's scary."

"No kidding..."

"You done yet?" Nami asks, strangely enough, instead of hearing just her own voice, she heard a pair of voices say that scentence. She looks over to the source of the voice, and sees another woman staring back at her. The two begin to approach and circle one another.

"Just who might you be?" Nami asks.

"I'll say my name when you say yours." The woman replies.

"Fine. On the count of three." Nami begins. "One... two... three.

-Nami-" Nami says.

"-Ann-" The woman says.

"That wasn't too difficult, now was it?" Nami asks.

"No, not really." Ann replies, giving her a smile and holding out a hand. "Pleased to meet you."

Nami looks at the hand, and then to her, and then to the rest of them.

"This is the tomboy of your area?" She asks disbelievingly.

"She used to be a bit worse." The other Jack says. "But actually she was still pretty sweet, which is why I married her."

"Right." Nami says. She then looks over to Ann. "...Likewise, I suppose." She shakes Ann's hand quickly and then returned to Jack... her Jack, not Ann's.

"Now, could someone give us the full introduction?" Jack (Nami's Jack... man, this is getting confusing.) asks.

"Yes." The lens-eyed woman that brought them there said, finally stepping into the light. "My name is Mary, the... brains, if you will. That over there..." She says, pointing to the man who had his cap covering his face. "...is my husband, Grey, the covert specialist. You already have heard Ann's name. She was the first to spot the children, at the riverside."

"However, I was..." Ann says, a bit hesitant to continue. "...a bit... off-center when I met them."

"Bodigizer overdose." Mary says. "She dosen't read the labels properly. Anyway," She continues, pointing over to the pink-haired woman that was worrying over Kai. "She is Popuri,"

Nami's eyes flinched at the name, remembering the perfume incident during their battle with Daachan.

", our expert at... well, that's undetermined so far, but she must be good for something." Mary continues, pointing over to (Ann's) Jack. "That, of course, is Jack. He's our weapons specialist, since he asked to be. And finally," She points over to Kai. "You already know, but this is Kai. He's skilled in all manner of fish use, and he can be a charmer, if he DOSEN'T try too hard."

Hearing the name again triggered something in Jack's mind. He walks away from Nami in a slight daze, the monkeys turning the wheels in his brain working overtime. He looks at the still-sitting Kai.

"I know that name..." He says. Suddenly, after a while of flipping through the pages of his memory, a bell rings and he remembers. He suddenly gets a savage look on his face."

"BISHOUNEN!!!" he yells, pulling a large hatchet from his rucksack and charging at Kai. "DIIEEE!!!! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!" He swings his hatchet in Kai's general direction as he yelled.

"EEK!" Kai screams, backing himself into a tree. Jack would've had him cut to pieces right there and then, if he weren't held back with the combined efforts of Grey, Popuri, the other Jack, and Ann.

"NO ONE HITS ON NAMI! NO ONE!!!" Jack yells, swinging his hatchet within millimeters of Kai's face.

"Hey, hey man, wait!" Kai says. "I'm married now, those days are over! Can't we just bury the hatchet?"

"I'LL BURY THE HATCHET RIGHT UP YOUR-"

"JACK!" Everyone holding him back yells. Jack immediately stops, dropping the axe and sighing.

"Okay, okay." Jack says. "I'm done."

"What's his problem, anyway?" Popuri asks, looking suspiciously over to Kai.

"Well..." Nami begins. "One day, back in the bachelor days, Kai made a little visit to the Valley. He... overstayed his welcome, we can say."

"No kidding." Jack says. "He hit on every girl-"

"Chris included."

"And y'know, that would have been all right, IF he hadn't run into Nami. That's when he pushed my 'kill' button a BIT too far."

"But that's all behind us, right?" Kai says, unsure of if he should move or not. "I mean, I'm a family man now, and like everyone else here my kid is gone."

Just then, two more figures walked out into the clearing. The others look over to them.

"Oh, it's Elli and Cliff." Gray says. "How are things coming?"

"Our child is gone." The man that Jack assumed was Cliff said.

"Oh? Your kid went missing, too?" Nami asks.

"No." Elli says, shaking her head. "He's gone to find the others and bring them back."

"Oh, really?" Nami says. "Why didn't he just stay with us if he wanted to get them back?"

"Their son is a trump card for us." Mary explains. "He will hunt for them separately from us, this way we have more of an advantage."

"Riiight." Jack says disbelievingly, looking over to Nami to make sure that they heard the same thing. He then looks over to Elli and Cliff. "So you expect your son, alone, to be able to bring every one of our kids back?"

Cliff smirked at Jack's disbelief.

"Our son is..." He begins, looking for the proper word. "...gifted."

"Well... mine's pretty bright, too, but-"

"That's not exactly what we're talking about." Elli says, smiling.

"Oh... Wow, creepy..." Jack says. "I'll trust that you know what you're doing."

"We do." Kai says, shifting away from the tree and a safe distance from Jack. "But right now, let's sleep."

"No, we have more travel to do." Popuri says.

"She has a point." Nami says. "From where we are, we're lagging far behind. The tracks are a couple of days old. We'll have to double our pace if we want to-"

"We have another way to travel." Mary says. "It's much quicker than walking." She walks up to Kai, putting a hand in his pocket and pulling out a small stone, glowing with spiritual energy.

"This is the Teleport Stone." Mary says. "It can warp one person a long distance, or several people a short distance. We used it so that Kai could try to intercept them."

"Oh, okay." Jack says, looking at the stone. "But... if Kai had it in his pocket, then why didn't he just teleport back here instead of running?"

Everyone looks over to Kai, waiting for an answer.

Kai thinks for a moment, and then hits his head in frustration.

"Gah, that would've been easier, wouldn't it?!" He says. The rest of them sigh, shaking their heads.

"Well, anyway, let's go." Jack says, taking the stone.

"Wait, do you know how to use that?" Jack (not from the Valley) asks.

"Ah, how hard could it be?" He replies. "Okay, everybody gather 'round."

The others walk close to him and wait.

"Why do you guys look so nervous? What's the worst that can happen?" Jack says, holding the stone up in the air. Focusing, Jack activates the stone and they disappear in a brilliant flash... immediately reappearing in another brilliant flash exactly where they were before, only twenty feet higher above the ground.

"...Okay, you see, this is bad..." The Jack not holding the stone says, before they all come crashing back down.

MEANWHILE...

Back at Jack's farm, the work force was busy maintaining everything to perfection. Rock was busy watering the plants... still... and he was getting extremely tired running back and forth. But finally, after untold hours, he had finished it.

"Ha!" He says triumphantly. "No one thought I could do it, but I did it!"

"Umm..." Comes a voice from below him. It was Flak, pulling at his pant leg.

"Huh, what is it?" Rock asks, seeing Flak.

Flak points over to the very beginning of the very first field that Rock had been working on. A few of the plants were dry.

Rock's screams echoed across the mountains, scaring wildlife and causing some cliffs and tunnels to collapse.

Nik and Nak, meanwhile, were busy spreading new feed on the feeder area of the coop. Unfortunately, they had left the door open and one chicken was sneaking it's way to it. Thankfully, however, Nak caught sight of it and quickly scurried himself between the opening and the chicken.

"You can't leave!" Nak tells it. "It's gonna rain tomorrow, we'll get in trouble if we let you out!"

The chicken's eyes narrowed at the little Sprite blocking it's path. It clawed the ground in a fashion similar to a bull getting ready to charge.

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" Nak says, rolling up his tiny-but-still-too-large-for-him sleeves. "Well, what if I do THIS?" He scurries to the door and pushes it shut. "Ha! Now you can't get... uh-oh..."

The chicken gives Nak a cold glare and snarls, if that's possible with a beak. Nak's tiny face turns completely white and the chicken rushes at him.

"AHH!" Nak yells, not having enough time to run. "AH! Oww! Owowowowow! OWW! Yeowwww! WHY DO CHICKENS HAVE TO BE SO POINTY!?!"

Outside of the range of Nak's screaming, Daryll looked at the grass field, wondering how he could cut it in the most creative, easy way possible.

"Hmm... Ah, I know! The common house-feline consumes grass as a part of their regular diet, so if I were to enhance it's appetite in some way... I've got it!" He runs into Jack's house, finding their pet cat and more importantly, its food dish.

"Okay, Kitty, time for supper." Daryll says, pouring it a bowl of his 'special' cat formula.

"Heheheheheh..."

At that time, inside the barn, Lumina was happily brushing the animals of the barn, mumbling to herself in a less happy manner.

"...but of course, it just couldn't happen because I was ten, but am I mad? Nope, no trouble, I'm young enough to go with the son, or am I? Nope. Well, yes, but I can't because of HER. But am I mad? Am I going to turn evil and wreak terrible revenge on them? Nope. I'm nice, I wouldn't do that." She pauses for a moment, having finally finished brushing the cows.

"All that's left to do is the milking." She says, sighing. "Well... how hard could it be?"

Outside, just walking up the path to the farm, was none other than the well-toned, muscular uber-teen jock Hugh, who, just like his father, had spent 73% of his existence either jogging or in the weight room, only he had turned out better, meaning he hadn't become a lanky, sweaty man desperately clinging to lost hopes and dreams. Having heard Rock's scream, he decided to check the farm out in case something had gone wrong. The first thing he saw as he walked was Daryll at the front door of Jack's house, holding his back to it as though it was of utmost importance to keep the door, and more importantly it's occupants, sealed.

"Whatcha doing, Daryll?" Hugh asks, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Who, me? N-nothing!" Daryll says innocently, immediately followed by a smash on the other side of the door that buckled it heavily.

"Ooookay..." Hugh says, shaking his head. Continuing around, he passes by the chicken coop, where the sounds of a struggle could be heard. Cautiously, he opens the door slightly and sticks his head in.

Nak, being persued and quite often pecked on the head by an angry chicken, was running around the coop as quickly as was possible. Nik was attempting to aid him by clinging to the chicken as well as he could, but it didn't seem to slow it down a considerable amount.

Hugh quietly closes the door, deciding not to bother. He sees Flak walking in his direction.

"Umm... you might want to get back to the coop pretty quick..." He says to the Sprite.

"Why?" Flak asks.

"Umm... it's a surprise!" Hugh concludes. Flak cheers happily and makes his way into the Coop, where the sounds of struggle were further heard. Sighing, Hugh continues on his way, only to shortly later see Rock in a fixed position in the middle of the largest field, staring out into space with a blank look on his face.

"Err... Rock?" Hugh begins.

"...It never ends... never..." Rock mumbles, his face unnaturally pale. "It's always dry... never finished... a horrible circle of watering... ending only in... death..."

"...Rock, you could just bring more water with you if you can't keep up, like in a bucket or, I dunno, one of the other watering cans in the Tool Shed..."

"...never ends... dry... circle... water... death..."

Hugh blinks and decides that eventually his words would sink in, so he walks up to the Barn, opening the doors and looking inside.

Within, he found Lumina. Oddly enough, by some unfathomable feat of nature and extremely bad luck, she had managed to tangle herself up in the udders of the cow she was milking. Finding that this required immediate attention, Hugh walked up to Lumina.

"Umm, hey Lumina." He begins. "Do you need any help there?"

"What, me? Naah, I've got it..." Lumina says, struggling at the entangled udders. After about fifteen seconds of this, she stops to catch her breath.

"Yeah, maybe... I could use a bit of help..." She admits. Hugh nods, not saying anything, and after a couple of minutes manages to free Lumina.

"There, that wasn't so tough." Hugh says, helping Lumina to her feet. "But how did you manage to do that in the first place?"

"Oh, well..." Lumina begins, looking down. "I guess my mind was somewhere else."

"Really? Where, exactly?"

"Just... away, I wasn't really... Well, okay, I was..."

"Thinking about Miro?" Hugh asks.

"Well, not just him, the whole bunch." Lumina says, holding her arm. "Him and Jack and Nami and... Kate, being out there, alone."

"Alone together, you mean." Hugh says. "If Kate found Miro like she said she would before she took off, and Miro's folks haven't found him yet, that means the two of them are totally isolated, away from prying eyes and listening ears and asking... mouths, or something."

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about it!" Lumina says, shutting her eyes tight. "I wish I could do something to get them apart! I wish I was the one that went after him, not Kate! I'm stuck here milking cows, they're out doing... Goddess-knows-what!"

Hugh was a bit deflated by this outburst, but kept it concealed well enough.

"Well, if you were to ask me, the well-built, handsome, sensitive and so-far-single guy that I am, I would say that that 's unfair." He says, grinning. "So how about this? I milk the cows, and you go find Miro and drag his sorry butt back to town!"

"Y...you'll really work in my place?" Lumina says in amazement. Suddenly, her eyes drop again. "...It's a nice idea, but I'll never be able to catch up with him... not before his parents do, anyway."

"You can do whatever you put your mind to." Hugh reassures her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I've got faith in you. In fact, I bet you'll be dragging him home before you know it!"

"...Thank you, Hugh." Lumina says, looking up at him. "Thank you, I'll do it. I'll get Miro back here before Kate even notices that she's walking alone." With that, Lumina runs off, but not before rewarding Hugh with a quick peck on the cheek.

As soon as Lumina was gone, Hugh put a massive grin on his face and threw his fist up in victory.

"SCORE! Fill a girl up with false enthusiasm and you'll be feelin' good for the rest of the day! Of course, it's not all false." He says, calming down a little, still a small grin on his face. "She'll make it, of course. She'll get there in time. That, I can be sure of..."


	13. Part 7, A Kinda Pretty Cool Part

(Hello. Once again, thank you for the reviews. I don't want to waste your time, so here is Part 7 of the mini-series-within-the-series-which-is-actually-technically-at-part-13!)

After resting for the night, Miro's company once again begins travel. It was nearing Summer, and the sun was getting a bit warm.

"Whew... I'm boiling..." Anna says, fanning herself.

"It's nine o'clock," Miro reminds her. "The wind's still chilly, what're you talking about?"

"Oh... I guess you're right." Anna says, shrugging and proceeding normally. Miro looks at her strangely.

"...I'd like to find out just how that brain of yours works, that you can think it's hot, and actually believe that so completely that you sweat."

"Ladies don't sweat." Kate informs him.

"Oh, then what do they do, produce bacon grease?"

"Actually," Matthew begins. "It's been proven that in areas of little or no perfume shops, a female will naturally produce brand-made perfumes from their skin, the type depending on their attitudes. Anna would be cherry,"

"Kate would be violet," Miro continues.

"And Ricca would be..." They both say, pausing to think for a moment. "...steamed onion." They grin and high-five one another.

After delivering a well-placed elbow on the jaws of both of the guys, Ricca looks at them.

"And why's that exactly?"

"Err..." Matthew begins, not wanting to say anything.

"Since you asked..." Miro says, rubbing his jaw but still brave enough to continue. "It's steamed because of your obvious attitude, and it's an onion because-" He's cut off suddenly by 120 pounds of ankle force coming down on his foot at mach 8, which caused him to lose the desire to continue his scentence very, very quickly. Instead, Kate and Anna finish in his place.

"-she can make boys cry!" The three of them laugh and give each other high fives like the guys did. Miro just limps on and tries to keep his eyes from watering.

"That has to be the worst line that any female has ever invented." Matthew says, sighing. "It has no humor or meaning, it's just a positive buff for females who believe in their own superiority to males."

"...What he said..." Miro says, sounding like he was still in a reasonable amount of pain.

"You just say that because you lost the argument." Ricca says, the other two girls nodding.

"...So?" Matthew says.

"Besides, you cheated." Miro says. "Do you see me stomping your foot an inch into the ground?"

"Can we just focus on the mission?" Kate says. "Ricca, where are we on the map?"

"Let's see..." Ricca says, taking a look at the map she had drawn out. "We're in the plains, so we should be... here. Now, there's supposed to be a railway nearby but I don't see one... it may have been removed a while ago, the map is kinda old-"

"Hey, look, a railway!" Anna says, pointing out in the distance.

"...Oh. Or not." Ricca says. "Anyway, this is helpful."

"How?" Miro asks.

"I'll show you once we're there." Ricca says, and they continue their walk until they had reached the tracks and were standing beside them.

"Now, it says to directly follow the tracks." Ricca tells them. "So at least there won't be much of a chance of us getting lost for the next while."

"Yeah, I guess so." Miro says. "Not that we had that problem in the first place, but I guess it's a nice precau-"

"Shh." Anna says suddenly, the rest of them quieting down. "I thought I heard something..."

"What?" Matthew asks in a whisper.

"Kinda like a hiss or a pop or something between that." She says.

"It might be a train." Ricca suggests.

"No, it didn't come from the tracks..." Anna says. "And it didn't sound like a train..."

"Just forget it." Miro says. "You were probably hearing things. Let's get go-"

Suddenly, the sound was heard again behind them,within hearing range of everyone. It had happened twice before they had fully turned around to see what it was, and then it stopped. There was nothing nearby, but there was an odd wisp of smoke about twenty meters away.

"What was that?" Miro says, looking at the smoke.

"It seems to be what I like to call an etheral residue." Matthew says. "It's just fade-away smoke from some sort of magical... poof."

"Magical?" Miro says, laughing. "What can there possibly be here that's magical?"

The others, minus Kate, remain silent, knowing a couple of things from their town that could do that.

"...Well, anyway..." Miro says, him and the others turning around slowly. "We should mo-"

Suddenly, the sound sounded behind them again, only this time directly behind them. Miro and the others whip around quickly to find another wisp of smoke, only this time it was filled by...

"...Crap." They all mumble, as they see their parents directly in front of them, a hat-wearing man with Miro's father's face holding a stone and the majority of them coughing due to the smoke.

"Oww!" The man says, dropping the stone. "Jee, that thing gets warm after you use it a lot!"

"Yeah, yeah, cough anyway," The man that Miro immediately recognizes as his father says, looking over to Miro's group. "It's high time that you guys came home."

"Ugh, it's not getting through to you, is it?" Miro says. "I'm not going home, not yet. I've got a mission and I'm completing it no matter what you try!"

"Oh, c'mon," The tanned man that they had met earlier says. "I'm tired of this, besides, there's nowhere you can go that we can't follow you with this in our hands." He points over to the Teleport Stone that was dropped.

"You think that we won't find a way to escape like we did last time?" Ricca says. "We'll fight all of you if we have to, and we won't lose."

"Yes, you will." Another man with a hat says, only his hat was turned forward. "You're hopelessly outnumbered, it would save some time if you just gave yourself in."

Suddenly, Miro hears a noise that gave him new hope fo the situation. A train was coming in their direction. He looks over to the others, who all nod, knowing what he had planned.

"Go!" Miro says, him and most of the group running to the tracks. Ricca stayed for a second, though, to run up and kick the Teleport Stone a distance away, into some tall grass. She then runs across as well.

The plan had one snag, however. Most of the group made it across, but Miro had managed to get his shoe caught between the boards of the track. He pulled as hard as he could, but couldn't free himself.

"Oh, dammit..." He mumbles. "Hey! Hey, help!"

"Just take your shoe off!" Kate says, rolling her eyes. "Those people in movies never think of taking their shoe off, but really, it's a good idea."

"Oh, yeah..." Miro says, bending down to his shoe.

"You'd better hurry, too, Miro!" Mathew warns him. "Or you'll be crushed flatter than Kai's seaside quad-cheese pizza with pepperoni and extra sauce!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm... Wait," Miro says, standing up suddenly. "They come in quad-cheese AND extra sauce?"

"Yeah, it's great stuff, you should really try it!" Matthew replies.

"I will, man. I've been waiting to try a combination like that since I was four! I mean, seriously, the gooey satisfaction of quad-cheese alongside the tangy tomato flavor of extra sa-"

"MIRO!" Everyone, including the parents, yelled.

"Oh, right, the train." Miro says, returning to his shoes. "Let's see... If I pull this string, and them undo this knot, I should-"

SMASH!

As Miro collided with the train, the entire group squint their eyes at the sight and let out a resounding "Ooooooooohhhh...."

"Well, he got his shoe unstuck..." Anna says.

Noticing something, Ricca turns to the others.

"Guys, now's our chance! The train is moving in the right direction, and Miro's going that way anyway, so let's jump on before the others notice!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Matthew says, and with a running start, they all jump at the train, managing to grab on despite the speed and stay hanging on the sides.

On the other end of the train, Nami thinks of something.

"...They're going to jump on the train!" She says.

"We've got them!" Jack says as he, the other Jack, Gray, Cliff, and Kai, with a running start, jump at the train and... bounce off of it, landing in injured heaps on the ground.

"Try again!" Popuri yells.

Groaning, they get up and jump at the train again, this time grabbing onto either the train or each other and hanging on for dear life.

"So... What should we do?" Mary asks as she watches their husbands carried away by the train, scrambling to get on the roof.

"Well, we should look for the Teleport Stone that Ricca kicked away." Popuri says, shrugging.

"And then maybe we could have a round of Parcheesi." Nami suggests, the others nodding at this.

Meanwhile, back at the train, Jack (from the Valley) and Kai, who had clung onto him, clambered up on the roof of the speeding machine.

"Okay, where are they?!" Jack yells over the wind.

"I don't know! Hey, wait, there's one!" Kai says, pointing forward and spotting a pink-haired girl climbing to the roof right in front of them.

"It's Ricca!" Kai informs Jack. Ricca, hearing Kai's voice, turns to him.

"Oh." She says. "I suppose that you'll try to take me back, then?"

"Well, yeah, that's basically the plan!" Kai says. Jack nods with him.

"Keyword is 'try', Dad." Ricca says, walking to them calmly, her hair blowing in a fierce fashion in the wind.

"Oh, so you're gonna fight us? Alone?" Kai says.

"Yes." Ricca replies. "And I plan to win. What can I say? I'm stubborn."

"That kinda thing'll get you in trouble, Miss." Kai says, pulling out his latest weapon, a two-handed swordfish, and pointing it to her. Jack looks around for a weapon as well, but decides to just stick with his fists.

"Try me." Ricca says, beginning the fight by jumping up and, using the wind to her advantage, performing a... flying clothesline by holding both of her hands out and letting the wind blow her at them, striking them both to the ground. She then lands again and crosses her arms, waiting for their next move.

"Ugh... Your kid's got skills..." Jack says as the two of them get back up. "Hmm... let's go at her at the same time. On three, ready? One, two, three!"

They both run at her, Kai reaching her first and swinging the swordfish, which she effortlessly dodged. Jack jumped at her, but while she was in her lowered position from the dodge, she just used his momentum and the wind to her advantage, pushing him up with her feet and watching him fly down the back of the train. Now it was only her and Kai. Kai lunged at her once, which she also dodged, but then the two pulled back from each other.

"Give up yet?" Ricca asks, yawning boredly.

"Ha!" Kai says. "I know all of your tricks, if anyone should give up, it's you!"

"If that's what you think..." Ricca says, pulling a bar from the side of the train and holding it out like a weapon. "It's your funeral."

Kai once again slashed at Ricca, which she blocked with her weapon. They continue to trade blows like this until finally Ricca disarms him, the fish flying and bouncing away.

"This is for trying to stop me,"

She then strikes Kai with the bar, barely pausing.

"this is for cooking fish every day for dinner,"

She strikes Kai again.

"and this is for throwing out MY DAMN DIARY!"

She hits Kai with a huge force, sending him flying clear off the train.

"THAT WAS AN ACCIDEEEEEENT!" Kai yells as he fell, finally landing in a fashion best left undescribed.

Throwing the bar away, Ricca cracks her neck, smugly sitting down on the roof.

At another section of the train, Anna looked around on the roof, enjoying the passing view. Suddenly, a man climbs up right in front of her, panting for breath.

"Oh. Hey, Dad." Anna says, giving him room to stand up.

"Hello, sweetie." The hat-equipped Jack says, looking over to her. "Time to come home now."

"Sorry, but I can't." Anna replies. "The rest of us are gonna go looking for a very special place and I don't wanna miss out. You told me about it, remember?"

"What?" Jack says, scratching his head. "But... wait, THAT place? Well, I'm afraid you're not gonna see it."

Anna looks ahead of them, and then smiles. "Yes I am."

"Oh, so you're going to act like that, are you?" Jack says, beginning to walk at her, but interrupted by the flailing body of the second Jack colliding into his own, hitting him to the floor. The second Jack, finally, fell over the side and onto the ground.

Getting up, Jack streightened his hat and looked at Anna.

"You thought that was gonna be enou-" He is suddenly interrupted again by a large swordfish colliding into his face, staying on for a few seconds before Jack pushed it off of him.

"Okay, that's it, I'm gonna-" But he is interrupted for a third time by a solid steel bar smashing into his skull, bouncing off and leaving Jack in a state of much pain.

"Uuugh... Where's the hospital...?" He asks, obviously in a daze.

"Right over there." Anna says, pointing over the side of the train. Jack follows her finger and walks right over the side, lost to sight.

"Wow, that was easy." Anna says, laughing.

Meanwhile, Matthew had climbed up on a different section of the train. He also looked around and immediately spotted Gray staring at him, waiting for a response.

"Oh... Hey, Dad." Matthew says. "So we're gonna fight?"

"Yep." Gray says. "Unless you give yourself in, which would be much easier."

"Sorry, Dad, but that's strategically impossible." Matthew informs him. "Since that would mean that I give up, which would mean that I lose. I don't like to lose."

"Sometimes you have to take a loss." Gray says.

"Sometimes, but that's not now." Matthew says, getting ready to fight.

"...Heh, you're not going to win like that." Gray says. "How about this: You're my son, so I'll give you a headstart. I'll be hanging onto the side, and when I say go, we begin."

"Fine by me." Matthew says, shrugging. Gray nods and lowers himself to the side of the train, only his hands visible on the top.

"Oh, and Dad?" Matthew says.

"Yes?" Gray replies.

"How about this: You're my father, so I apologize for not telling you about the mail bag."

"What? What mail-" But Gray is quickly cut off by a face-level mail bag, left behind from some old train station that must have been there before to let people mail things from the windows of their train, striking him. Matthew couldn't see what exactly happened, but Gray's fingers weren't hanging onto the sides anymore.

A distance away, Mary, using binoculars, could see quite clearly what had happened as Gray rolled and tumbled himself to a stop.

"Idiot..." She mumbles under her breath.

At around that time, Kate and Cliff clambered up to the top of the train at the exact same time, noticing one another once they had reached the roof.

"...Who are you?" Kate asks, looking at him.

"Me? I'm... Wait, who are you?" Cliff asks back, looking at her as well.

"I don't think I need to tell you." Kate replies. "It would probably be better that way, anyway."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, if you don't know my name, it'd be harder for you to track me once we've escaped."

"Who says that your group's gonna escape?"

"Who says we aren't?"

"Well... Okay, Y'know what? I don't care about you, I'm just looking for my friends' kids. Do you know where they ended up on this train?"

"Probably that way." Kate says, pointing to the train cars ahead of them.

"Oh... Well, thanks." Cliff replies, beginning to walk across the car and stopping when he was at the gap between it and the next one.

"Hmm... Now, how am I gonna get across here?" He says to himself. Kate, finding the opportunity, dashes up to Cliff silently and clears her throat.

"HI MISTER!" She yells. Cliff, shouting in surprise, stumbles and falls down the train. After landing on the tracks, his yells of considerable pain from being hit by every single car that passes over him after that point is heard quite clearly over the noise of the machine.

Kate, proud of herself, laughs a little and realises that she now has something to tell Miro if he ever complains about her doing that again.

Meanwhile (again), Miro was lifting his seriously bruised body up the front of the train, to the surprise of the driver, and eventually made his way to the solid roof. Breathing heavily, he remained on the ground for a few minutes. Finally, he lifted his head up and looked ahead of him, suddenly gasping.

Directly in front of him, looking away from him and seemingly unaffected by the wind, was a young man that looked to be Miro's age, with silver-white hair and a strange look about him, even though Miro han't yet seen his face. Pulling himself to his knees, Miro spoke.

"Who are you?" He says. Despite the wind, the young man seemed to hear him and turned around, gazing at him with a cold, expressionless face. Miro was correct with his hunch, he was definitely around his age.

"It is time for you to go home." The person says plainly. Miro stands up on his feet and laughs a bit.

"Oh, not another one of you!" He says, suddenly looking at him seriously. "Listen, bud, and tell this to everyone else, We've gone too far, I'm not turning back now!"

"Turning is not a necissary movement." He replies. "If necissary, you may be dragged."

"Ha! Good!" Miro replies. "Because that's the only way you're going to bring me back!" He then reaches into his rucksack and pulls out a baseball bat, brandishing it like a weapon.

"You have been hit by a train, yet you still believe that you could face me and come out victorious." The person says, still without much of a tone to his voice. "The chances of you defeating me in these conditions are 0/1."

"Then I'll take that chance!" Miro says. He pauses for a moment to think about what he just said. "...Wait, that's not very good, is it?"

"No."

"Oh... Well, whatever!" He yells, running at him and swinging the bat. It was dodged at a supernatural speed, though, and the man punches Miro directly on the chest with a colossal force, sending him flying back... or it would have, if the train weren't moving. In truth, he ended up landing behind the person due to the wind.

Remaining on the ground, Miro pulls his head up to see the person facing away from him again, looking out as though Miro wasn't even there.

"Wh...What... are you?" Miro says weakly, gasping for breath.

The person waits for a moment before answering, turning to face Miro again.

"...Gifted."

Miro realises now that this person was far above his ability, he couldn't win the fight without aid. He didn't even have a proper weapon, the bat was knocked out of his hands when he was hit by that punch.

"Wait... Hmm..." Miro says to himself, slowly reaching his hand into his rucksack. "Well... it worked before..."

Suddenly, Miro yanks out none other than his trusted Goat Milker and launches it to the person's face.

"Not quite." The person says, grabbing Miro's wrist just in time, although it seemed that he could have stopped him earlier. With a swing of his arm, he spun Miro and slammed him back on the roof of the train, letting his arm fall limp afterward.

"Have you been taught enough for one day?" The person asks.

"Heh... you know..." Miro says, slowly rolling from his back to his front. "It may look like you're winning this... but I know something... you don't know..."

"What you know is not of my concern, there is no possible route out of this situation. Give up this folly of a journey and come with me." The person says.

"Heh... Goodbye, Mr. Gifted..." Miro says, laughing a bit. The person looks confused for a second, then turns behind him. A tunnel.

He turns back to Miro.

"...For now." He says. Miro, smiling, suddenly turns on the goat milker and throws it in the air, making it hover for a second at eye level with the person.

Miro went under the tunnel, the other wasn't so lucky. Thankfully, Ricca, Kate, Matthew, and Anna all saw the tunnel coming.

"Duck!"

"Duck!"

"Duck!"

"Where? ...Oh- DUCK!"

Miro remained lying on the ground, not like he could do much else anyway. As they cleared the tunnel, he let out a sigh of relief. It was a good thing that the general public was too lazy to build the tracks around small mountains like that, or he would've been toast.

Meanwhile, planted quite solidly against the rocks, the person remained still for a moment. The goat milker was attatched to his face, which he found a bit displeasing. Tearing his right hand from the rocks, he flicks off the suction, catching it in his hand as it fell off. He looks at it for a moment, then puts his face close to it and smells it. His eyes narrow.

"Demon..." He mumbles, throwing it aside. He then pulls the rest of his body from the stone, seemingly unharmed, and falls to the ground with a graceful landing. Turning, he proceeds into the tunnel at a relaxed walking pace, until he was completely covered in the shadow.


	14. Part 8: The Part After The Other Part

(Before we get started, how about a shameless advertisement? Dosen't that sound fun?

Join fr0gg forums, one of the... only really good Naruto roleplaying sites that I've seen so far! If you know what the anime/manga series Naruto is, or even better, if you like it, come join! We have a 'shop' system, very literate roleplayers, and it's quite active... even moreso if there were MORE THAN FIVE PEOPLE ROLEPLAYING! I'm not the leader, by the way. There's no way I could figure out how to make such a nice layout! Aaaanyway, here's the link:

http :fr0gg. proboards21 .com/ index. cgi (minus the spaces, of course. Sorry, I'm too lazy to find ot how to post a real link... or try to find out if it's allowed or not.)

Join! PLEASE!

And now, back to our regular... Fic-ing.)

Eventually, the group found each other on the train and gathered to where Miro was first, since he didn't have the mobility to go anywhere else at this point, anyway. They all gather around Miro's body and stare down at him. His eyes were shut, and he was breathing softly.

"Oh, he looks so sweet." Anna coos, smiling.

"Minus the cuts, welts, and bruises covering a good portion of him." Ricca adds, not nearly as concerned as most of the others looked.

"Well... he always does seem to have an angel face when he's sleeping." Kate says, immediately changing the subject after the statement. "I wonder what did this to him?"

"We can find that out later." Matthew says. "People, we're on a speeding train, it's not time for an emotional gawking at a half-dead-looking buddy."

"I'm with you." Ricca says, nodding and taking out the map.

"What's it say? Where do we get off?" Anna asks, trying to see the map.

"We part from the tracks when... uh-oh." Ricca says suddenly, looking surprised for a second.

"What? What is it?" Matthew asks. "Did we miss our stop?"

"No, no." Ricca says. "But we missed a good shortcut that I noticed earlier. The idiot who traveled this map first took the hard way..."

"The hard way?"

"No time to explain, we have to get off of the train, now." Ricca orders. "Someone wake up Miro."

"Will do." Kate says, looking down to Miro and taking a deep breath, sighing out again, looking like she was prepering herself. The others look at her, and then down to Miro, wondering what was going to happen.

Kate placed her face directly in front of Miro's, and took in a deep breath.

"WAKE UP, YOU MORON!"

Everyone else sighs, disappointed that it wasn't something more creative.

Miro's face tightens, and he begins grumbling random things.

"Grrm... rbblrm... Huh? S'that you, Mom?" Miro says, opening his eyes slowly to see Kate right in front of him. He blinks a couple of times, then looks around at the others.

"What're you all staring at?" He asks sleepily, still halfway in Dreamland. "Can't the Mrs. and I have some alone ti-"

He's cut short, courtesy of Kate booting him over the side of the train.

"He's off, let's go!" She yells, leading the bunch as they all jump over the same side, landing safely in a convenietly-placed bail of hay. Miro wasn't quite as lucky, and ended up landing in a patch of very short grass concealing more than just one rock.

After the rest of the group pulled themselves from the hay, they walk over to Miro to make sure that he was okay.

"Miro?" Matthew says, waving a hand in front of Miro's star-seeing, swirly-eyed face. "Miro? Are you all right? Hmm..." He withdraws his and and looks to be thinking about something.

"What is it, Matthew?" Anna asks.

"Well... It seems that Miro is in a state of total numbness." Matthew begins.

"Which is fair," Ricca says. "since he's been hit by a train, kicked off of the same train, and who-knows-what between that."

"Yeah, we're lucky he's not in a state of total... dead-ness." Anna adds.

"Yes, most people wouldn't be all together after an ordeal like that, I suppose." Matthew says. "So... any suggestions?"

"I could yell at him again." Kate offers.

"No, no." Matthew says, shaking his head. "This'll take a more serious approach than that."

"Well..." Ricca says. "We could nurse his wounds and wait it out until he comes back by himself, I guess."

"...I suppose that's all we have to go with." Matthew says, shrugging. "Now, all we need is... some bandages and about three miles of gauze."

Meanwhile, walking up the train tracks, the wives look around the area for their scattered husbands. Jack, to Nami's slight relief, is found first.

"Jack, time to get up." Nami says, looking down at her comatose husband.

"Mrrf..." Jack mumbles, turning away from Nami. "Not tonight, Hon, Miro's only in the next room, it'll traumatize hi- OOF!" He suddenly yells as Nami stomps him in the chest.

"Ugh, I swear, you're nearly as bad as Kai!"

The others shake their head, completely disagreeing with this statement.

"Wha? Oh, yeah, I'm here." Jack remembers, his eyes opening. He gets up slowly and groans, holding onto his back. "Ugh, I haven't fallen off of a speeding train since my last bachelor party..."

"Well, let's not go to a flashback just yet." Mary says. "We have more bodies to reco- I mean, people to find."

And so they continue on, finding none other than Kai next. Popuri walks up to him, seeing that he had landed in perfectly wrong ways and began fussing over his injuries.

"Oh, look at you! Look at your arms, and your legs, and your head, and your back, and y-"

"We get it!" Everyone behind her says.

"Well, what can we do to help poor Kai?" Popuri asks worriedly. "We can't just drag him along with us!"

"Can't we?" Nami says, pulling out a large net, half-filled with chocolate, from her bag. "I found this where the kids jumped for the train. It looks like they ditched it in the confusion."

"Which means we have no trail to follow..." Mary adds. "The wrappers from those bars made them very easy to track. Now it might be more difficult."

"Anyway," Nami says, holding it open and lifting Kai by his hair. "Into the net for you." She roughly throws him in and shuts it, stuffing the wole deal into her bag and swinging it over her shoulder again.

The others stare in amazement at this.

"Wow... that thing's got some capacity." Jack says.

"You mean not even you knew that it could do that?" Ann asks him.

"Tch, no, I thought it was a couch." Jack explains.

"He hardly noticed it, anyway." Nami says. "Too busy-"

"-Reading your diary, I know." Jack says, knowing that she was about to say that. "Look, I was doing other things, too, y'know!"

"Like...?"

"Looking at... you..."

"Where on me, exactly?"

"On, uhh... err, let's move!" Jack suddenly says, walking forward at a quick marching pace. The rest of the group sighs.

"Men..." They say in unison.

"Hey, I can hear you, you know!" Kai says from inside the bag. He shifts around and suddenly notices something.

"Mmm, chocolate!"

The group settled down a short distance from the tracks, and had made Miro a makeshift bed out of... a sleeping bag. They didn't feel like being too creative today. The waited paitently for Miro to awaken.

Finally, after what seemed like fifty games of Marbles, Miro began to stirr from his state of total stunned-ness.

"Ugh... why does my face hurt...?" He says slowly.

"Hey, he's up!" Matthew says. They all group around him eagerly.

"You feeling better?" Anna asks.

"I can't tell, I haven't felt anything since I was knocked out..." Miro said. "What happened to me?"

"To put it in light, scientific terms, you had the crap beaten out of you." Matthew explains. "What we need to know is how, and by whom?"

"Wait..." Miro says, thinking for a moment. Suddenly, his scattered memory pieced together his showdown on the train.

"I remember... there was someone on the train... I had climbed up to the top, and he was there. He told me that it was time to go home, so of course I snuffed that comment and went after him with a bat. He brought me down without even trying..."

"What did he look like?" Ricca asks.

"He had white hair and a cold, unfeeling look on his face." Miro says.

"Oh, that narrows it down to about a thousand villans." Kate says sarcastically. The others, though, know exactly who he was talking about.

"Miro..." Anna begins, sharing a nervous feeling with the others. "We know who you're talking about." (See?)

"Not quite." Matthew says, shaking his head. "Miro, how old did he look?"

"That was the wierdest thing." Miro says. "He didn't look any older than any of us..."

"Damn. Okay, now we're sure." Ricca says. "Miro, you're talking about something that most of us have been hoping againt from the start. He's one of us, he's from our town, Mineral Town. His name is... William."

"...That's it?" Miro says. "I was expecting a more powerful-sounding name. William dosen't sound too tough."

"He dosen't have to SOUND tough, trust me." Matthew says, taking off his cap and wiping cold sweat from his forehead. "The guy's unnatural. He's the son of a nurse and a semi-hobo."

"Yeah?" Miro says. "Well, although that's weird, it dosen't sound unnatural."

"Yeah, but he is. Supernatural, in fact." Ricca says, shutting her eyes. "We're not sure what happened, but one day, he had dyed his hair white and had his already shallow attitude was sucked completely dry. It's weird..."

"I kinda know what happened..." Anna admits. The others look over to her.

"Err..." She begins. "I saw him going to the springs. He was normal when he was on the way there, and then after a wierdly long time, he came back and was all... like he is now."

"This was just before we went to find Matthew." Ricca says. "We asked William to come help us, but he almost totally ignored us. He looked like he knew something that we didn't at the time..."

"Like our whole search for the Place?" Miro suggests.

"That could've been it." Anna says. "But... if he knew about it, why didn't he team up with us?"

"Maybe it had something to do with his changing..." Ricca says, looking unusually affected by this for someone like her. "Maybe the parents knew beforehand, too."

"Well, this is all what Jack did, right?" Matthew says. Miro looks over to him suddenly.

"Jack? That's my Dad's name!"

"It's my Dad's name, too." Anna says. "So... two cousins were named the same thing?"

"Wow, the creativity just oozes from the family bloodline, dosen't it?" Miro says, rolling his eyes.

"Can we get going already?" Kate asks.

"Are you kidding me!" Miro says. "I'm not in my best shape right now, you know! How am I supposed to walk? I've been hit by a train, you idiot!"

"...We could always leave him." Kate says, turning to the others. They all nod in agreement.

"Hey! I'm not being ditched here for the sake of quicker travel!" Miro protests, standing up and fuming. He suddenly notices something. He was standing up.

"...Can you explain this?" Ricca says, looking over to Matthew.

"Well..." Matthew says, bewildered for a second. "It is possible that everything that's happened to Miro has impacted him the absolute smallest amount. Or his sleep was very useful to his healing. Or perhaps his anger has just given him the will to stand up."

"Number 3." The rest of them say. Miro sighs.

"Let's go." He says. They all sigh, picking up their things and walking away from the railroad track.

After a bit of walking, the next person that they meet is Jack from the Town. He looks like he had suffered some mean head injuries before he fell off. Ann walks up to him calmly, prodding her stunned husband with her foot.

"You awake, Dear?" She asks.

"Le, la ba da ba, ba dooo..." He replies, opening his eyes, a goofy smile on his face.

Ann rolls her eyes. She clears her throat and looks back to Jack.

"Hurricane."

"AH! MY CHICKENS!" He yells, getting up and looking around frantically.

"...Let me guess, bad experience?" Nami inquires.

"Oh yeah." Ann says. "He recovered most of the chickens, but one of them..."

Jack suddenly begins sobbing uncontrollably into Ann's shoulder. "P...poor little Monty... N-nothin' left but little... Monty McNuggets!" He continues to sob, pausing only to blow his nose on Ann's sleeve.

"Eww!" Ann says, pulling away and looking at her now green-tinted sleeve. "You're lucky we need you to walk, or you'd be pounded a foot below sea level right now!"

The others pause before speaking, slightly shocked by Ann's outburst.

"Huh." Nami says finally. "I didn't believe it, but I guess you really are a tomboy deep down."

Without another word, they continue to walk down the tracks. About twenty minutes later, they come across Gray, who was, surprisingly, standing up.

"Oh, you're okay?" Mary asks him.

"Yes." Gray replies. "It will take more than a mail bag and a long, rough stop to keep me down."

"...Let me see your face." Mary requests. Gray had his hat lowered more than usual on the right side of his face, all the way down to his mouth.

"..." Reluctantly, Gray raises his hat, showing a black eye, lumps, bruises, scabs and undeterminable purple blotches all across his right side.

The others cringe, seeing this.

"...When I fell, I started tumbling and rolling, and every time I hit ground, I landed on the exact same point on my face. Over... and over... and over..."

"Sounds like you're having a bad day!" Kai says from inside Nami's bag.

"...I won't ask." Gray says.

"Hmm..." Elli says, walkng up to him. "Oh, I can fix that up. Would you like me to?"

"Sure, I guess." Gray replies.

"Good. Now, hold still..." She pulls out a needle, a bucket of disinfectant and a large roll of tape.

A series of painful screams later, and Gray is as good as new.

"Oh, Gray, you overcame your fear of needles!" Mary says happily.

"N...No I didn't. She just had me held down so hard, I couldn't struggle." Gray replies, and although being fully healed, looking shocked and traumatized.

"Let's keep going." Nami cuts in. "Who are we still missing?"

"Cliff." Elli says. "I wonder how he fared in this...?"

"So... What is this 'hard way' that we're now taking?" Matthew asks Ricca, trying to look at the map.

"It's a road that leads through a forest." Ricca explains. "Well... not a road, really. Any roads that led through it were probably swallowed up by the forest itself."

"...Define 'swallowed'."

"Overtaken by trees."

"Oh. Okay, I thought you meant-"

"Eaten? Well..."

"Well what?" Miro cuts in.

"According to this map..." Ricca begins. "The forest is haunted."

"...Haunted?" Miro repeats after a short silence. "What kind of 'haunted'?"

"The 'rar-prepare-for-you-and-your-descendants-to-face-the-eternal-torment-of-your-souls-in-the-jowels-of-the-flesh-hounds-for-a-thousand-generations-and-such' kind." Ricca explains calmly.

"...You ARE kidding, right?" Miro and Matthew both say.

"It's just a guess." Ricca says. "However..."

She holds the map out to them, pointing to the forest. They read the forest's name.

_The Forest Of You Preparing Yourself And Your Descendants to Face The Eternal Torment of Your Souls in the Jowels of the Flesh Hounds For A Thousand Generations And Such_

"...Oh." The other two say, lowering their heads.

"Wow, that's all written out in stretch marks?" Anna says in amazement.

"No wonder I can make sparks when I rub steel wool against my back..." Miro says.

"Oh, well, now that we know that, making campfires will sure be easier." Kate comments.

"That's probably just an excuse to see him without a shirt on." Matthew adds.

"Yeah? Well, I bet it would be the same for Anna in your case!"

"The same for me? How would that-?"

"Oh yeah! Well-"

"GROW UP!" Ricca snaps at them all, causing them to reach a sudden end to their argument. "I don't need you guys fighting while we're walking through that place, being watched and followed by who-knows-what!"

"...Actually, I'm with her." Miro agrees, since, for once in his life, he wasn't part of the argument. "Something tells me that this won't be a friendly little walk like most of our trip's been so far."

"Wait, it's been FRIENDLY so far?" Matthew repeats.

"Well, the walk has been, just not the things that we've met during it." Miro continues. "Such as... Kate, Anna, and Ricca."

With that, he is punched in three different angles, those being an arm, his ribcage, and his skull. Beginning to grow tired of the bruises he always seemed to receive from opening his mouth a bit too much, he just crosses his arms (rubbing the now-sore one) and continues walking.

"...Who's up for some Guess the Color?"

"Red."

"Damn. How'd you know?"

"Your hair."

"Oh..."


	15. Part 9, Into the Forest of NotNiceness

"Well, here we are." Ricca says as they stand in front of one of the most ominous-looking forests they have ever seen. "C'mon, let's move."

"Are you kidding?!" Miro says. "It's evening! We're not going there in the evening, are we?"

"What's wrong with that?" Ricca asks.

"The EVENING part!" Miro yells. "Evening leads to night, night leads to... nocturnal predators feasting on our innards!"

"Don't be stupid, Miro." Kate says. "This map was used by Anna's dad, so anything that can eat us is probably too old to chase us very far."

"And besides, we're top-notch specialists in getting ourselves out of bad situations." Matthew says. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"...I'm trusting you." Miro says, and finally they walk into the woods.

-

"There he is!" Elli says, running up to where she sees Cliff lying down on the tracks. The rest of the group runs after her, and stops behind her, looking at Cliff.

"Oooooooh..." Jack says, squinting. "That ain't good. Nami, is there any more room in that bag?"

"Yes, but... I'll have to clean it out afterward..." Nami says.

"Do you think you can heal him?" Gray asks. Elli blinks, looking like she was in a bit of shock.

"Well... I... I think. That is, if I can remember where everything goes..."

"Wow, I've never seen that many things in such bad angles!" Ann says. "He looks like a spider who met the wrong end of a hammer!"

Slowly, Cliff's eyes open. He sees the other people standing above him.

"You're alive!" Elli says happily. "What happened to you, honey?"

"Train... I... fell under... train..." Cliff says, sounding a bit delirious. "Girl... yelled... made... me fall..."

"That must be Kate." Nami says. "She does that, or at least that's what Miro complains about."

"Well..." Elli says, trying to think of what part of Cliff she should fix up first. "Let's... just put him in a body cast, we're burning daylight."

"Wait, but th-that's your husband!" Jack says, openly shocked by this.

"Don't worry, Jack." Nami reassures him. "If it was you there, lying on the ground, looking like you just got out of the blender, I would do the same, too."

"G...b... What?! But that's not a nice thing! That dosen't help matters! GAAAH!" Jack yells, too confused and disturbed to go on. He unzips Nami's travel bag and hastily jumps in. The others hear voices coming from inside the bag.

"Hey, what're you doing in here?" Kai asks.

"Being safe." Jack replies. "I don't want to be thrown into a body cast and dragged along if I get crushed by a train!"

"...Huh?"

"Didn't you hear about Cliff?"

"No, I was too busy."

"Busy?"

"Yeah, I got lost in here. Look, there's a bunch of different things in here..."

"Hey, wow, chocolate!"

"That's nothing, look at this!"

"WOW! A resturant! With a play area!"

Nami zips the bag shut and sighs.

"Great, we'll never get them out of the ball pit." She says.

-

Evening was reaching it's low point, and everything within the forest was shaded and ominous. The stars hadn't yet come out, and any sunlight remaining was blocked out by the old, twisted trees. The group was having a difficult time moving.

"Oww! That was my foot!" Matthew says.

"Oww! That was my shin!" Kate complains.

"OWW! ...You don't even want to know what that was!" Miro says.

"Shh." Ricca says. "How long have we been walking?"

"About two hours." Miro says. "Why?"

"Well, do you think it's a sign of bad stealth that we've already gotten something's attention?!" Ricca whispers angrily.

"W...what?!" Anna says. "We can't even see it! Oh, wait, I know." The sound of Anna rummaging through her backpack is heard. "Ah, here we are! My flashlight!"

"NO!" Everyone yells, but it's too late. Anna turns the light on with a 'click'.

The rest of the group waits for something horrible to happen, but eventually they notice that nothing was. They look around, aided now by the flashlight, but it seems like there was nothing but trees around.

"...Ricca..." Miro begins. "you said that there was something following us, yes?"

"Yes." Ricca replies. "And... It was pretty big. I don't get it, how could it vanish like that?"

"Miro," Kate says. "Haven't you trained yourself to be able to hear tiny little noises?"

"Yeah, so?" Miro questions.

"Could you try to hear whatever Ricca heard?" Kate continues.

"Umm... Sure." Miro says. Breathing in, he closes his eyes in focus and tries to pick up any small sounds that he could. He was in a trance-like state, and Kate had to use quite a bit of willpower to not yell in his ear for her enjoyment. The forest sounded strange to Miro, it was almost total silence, minus a few light breezes and...

Miro opens his eyes slowly, speaking in a calm, quiet voice.

"I can hear... something shuffling against the wind's direction." He says.

"What is it?" Anna asks.

"It's quite strange..." Miro says. "It's close, but... it should be in sight. Easily, by the size of it."

The rest of the group is silent for a long time, either out of nervousness or trying to hear it for themselves. Anna quietly fiddles through the things in her backpack.

"Let's keep walking." Ricca finally says. They all agree and begin slowly stepping away.

Suddenly, a loud creaking and groaning sound is heard. This makes most of them jump and yell. Two of the nearby trees suddenly begin pulling themselves out of the ground.

"Oh crap..." Matthew says as the trees free themselves completely and begin slowly walking towards them. "Uhh... do we have anything for this?"

"Yes we do." Anna says. The rest of them look at her, waiting for whatever she had in mind. From her backpack, Anna pulled out two chainsaws, which surprised everyone greatly and gave Miro and Matthew the confidence they needed.

Snatching both of them up, Miro and Matthew turned to the walking trees.

"Now we're talking!" Miro says.

"Oh, yeah." Matthew agrees. They both yank at the cords of the chainsaws.

Nothing.

Not giving up, the two pulled at the cords multiple times, every time receiving little more than a sputter.

"Annaaaaaa..." They whine, turning to her. "The chainsaws are broken."

"Let me see." Anna says, her and Kate taking a chainsaw. With one pull, they start them up in full force, handing them back over to the guys with smirks on their faces.

Undeterred, but slightly embarassed, they turn back to the trees, which were still making their slow way towards them.

"Okay, let's do this." Miro says, Matthew nodding. Charging at them, they slice into the trees and, in less than a minute, had reduced them to poorly-stacked firewood.

They turned their weapons off and looked back to the others, gleaming with triumph. However, the expressions of those that they were looking at were less than proud. They were completely still, most had their eyes wide open, and were looking slightly above the two.

"Huh?" Miro says in confusion.

"What's the matter, what are you looking at?" Matthew asks.

"Be...hind... you..." The three say slowly through clenched teeth.

Matthew and Miro turn around slowly, gulping down all of the saliva in their throats.

In front of them was a massive, living tree, at least fourty feet tall and extremely thick. It's massive, lumbering... lumber, towered over them.

"...Allow me to repeat myself, OH CRAP!" Matthew yells.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Ricca says.

"RUN!" Everyone else yells.

And so they do, zooming ito the forest at a speed that would startle a drag racer. Once they slowed down for a rest, about half an hour later, all of them but Ricca collapse to the ground.

"Did we... lose it...?" Kate asks, pulling her face up and looking around.

"Yes." Ricca says. "I doubt if it can move very far, it's probably long since gave up."

"Heh... well, that's the first good thing to happen to us today." Miro says. He suddenly hears a very swift rustling, sleekly moving through the forest towards them.

"...Aaand I'm guessing it'll be the last." He finishes. "There's something coming!"

Everyone on the ground gets up, looking in the direction Miro turns his head.

"What? Where is it?" Matthew asks.

"...In the trees." Ricca says calmly. Everyone looks up, spotting two strange shadows leaping from tree to tree with amazing speed and agility.

"Oh, great, it's those things that snatched Matthew!" Miro says. He was the only one to have actually seen the things previously, since Matthew was unconscious, Kate wasn't in the group at the time and Anna and Ricca were busy drawing out the map.

"They're carrying something!" Anna says. "It's... Who is that?"

"Lumina!" Kate and Miro exclaim.

"We have to help her!" Kate says.

"They're getting away! Let's go!" Miro says. The group begin to persue the things, but quickly found that they were moving far too quickly for them to keep up.

Suddenly, one of them notices the group and quickly jumps down, directly in front of Miro. They all stop, Miro staring at it. He could see it's form in the dim light.

"What?! You're-"

But before he could finish, it strikes Miro and sends him into a tree. Quickly, it jumps up and rejoins it's partner, vanishing from sight, along with Lumina.

"...Why... always... me?" Miro says, falling from the tree trunk to the ground.

"Because you always run in front." Ricca explains. "You wouldn't be hurt as often if you weren't in the front lines."

"Point taken..." Miro says, slowly standing up and feeling his face.

"Wow, you're up?!" Matthew says. "How could you stand after a punch like that?"

"It... wasn't a punch..." Miro says slowly. He lowers his hand, revealing a concealled portion of his face.

A claw mark had been cut across it.


	16. Part 10, The Nighttime that Wasn't Reall...

(Sorry for the delay, people! My computer had to go in for a major retooling. Spyware's annoying, isn't it? Anyway, here's what I've pulled together for this chapter! Enjoy!

PS: The title was cut off. The full title is:

_Part 10, The Nighttime that Wasn't Really Scary_)

"Well, we've found them, haven't we?" Nami says, walking with the others. They would keep walking for a little while longer before stopping for the night. "So shouldn't we use the Stone to travel faster?"

"Well, that would usually be a good idea, but..." Gray begins, holding out the stone, which was cracked slightly on the surface. "It's damaged. I don't think that warping everyone at once would be very smart. It might break. However, we can still probably teleport one person at a time."

"But who will go?" Elli asks, while dragging her husband behind her in a plaster body cast. "We know that the kids are better than we thought, I can't see a very good chance of us winning if it's just one of us."

"Count me out." Kai says from inside the bag. "I already tried, and I'm still sore. I ain't going."

"Me too." The Jack that was also inside Nami's bag says. "I'm not really in that much pain, but I'm... well, scared."

"I don't know if I'm that good at fighting." Mary admits. "And that's probably what it'll come down to."

"Don't... even... ask..." Cliff says from inside the cast.

"Hmm..." Gray says. "Jack, where would they be right now?"

The Jack from Mineral Town blinks.

"Uhh..." He begins. "Well, if they stopped off at the right spot, they should be at the... Oh boy. They're at the Forest of You Preparing Yourself and Your Descndants to Face The Eternal Torment of Your Souls in the Jaws of the Flesh Hounds for a Thousand-"

"So, all in all, it's not good?" Nami interrupts.

"Yep." He replies.

"Hmm..." Gray says again. "If it's woods, I think I'll have the best advantage out of all of us. I'll go."

"What makes you say that?" Jack asks, fiddling with the tuft of hair protruding from his cap.

"Jack, when was the last time you saw me skipping along, whistling happily and not caring that my prescence was known to everyone in the area?" Gray asks.

"Hmm... Well, there was that day right before Mary announced that she was preg-"

"Besides that." Gray interrupts. "That day will now be stricken from the records for all time."

"But why were you so happy? Mary hadn't even told you yet-"

"_Anyway_," Gray says in a very let's-change-the-topic-NOW tone. "I know how to keep quiet and act stealthy, making a forest environment the best place for me to work. Besides, I have the stone, and you're not getting it until I've taken my turn."

"Okay, then, go for it." Nami says. "We don't have all night, you know. I'd like to see my son back so he can be working on the farm instead of the group of mental-defective non-farmers I left it with."

"Consider me gone." Gray says, holding out the stone and suddenly vanishing from view. The others cough from the smoke left behind.

-

"Anything coming to you yet?"

"No..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Not even a color, the shape of the face, what the claws looked like, anything?"

"No, nothing!" Miro says, beginning to get annoyed by all of their questions. They were walking through the forest, following the map, which, strangely enough, was also the direction that the two shadowy things had gone. "When it hit me, my memory must've been hurt, too."

"You mean you have all of you short and long-term memory, except for what exactly that thing was?" Kate asks. "That's stupid! How unlucky do we have to be, that-"

"Well, let's think for a moment." Ricca interrupts. "So far we've had our parents chasing after us in a big group, a train hitting Miro, William coming after us by himself and also hitting Miro, a failed opportunity for a shortcut which brings us into this place, a giant tree chasing us off, this Lumina girl being kidnapped, and the two things that kidnapped her getting away... and also hitting Miro. Even by our standards, it's been a bad day."

"True." Kate agrees. "Well, at least it can't get much worse. I mean, it's nearly nighttime, what else could hap-!" But before she could finish her scentence, something had cupped her mouth shut and dragged her off. However, she was in the back of the group, so no one had noticed.

"What else could hap?" Miro says without turning around. "Kate, have you started talking in Slang-lish again? That was stupid, even when I was eleven."

Anna, who was second from the back, turns around and notices something.

"Hey, Kate's not-" But quickly, she is snatched off as well.

"Kate's not? Then what weird, made-up language is she using?" Miro asks, sighing. "You are so weird sometimes, I swear."

"Miro, I think that they're-" Ricca begins, but when she notices something behind her, she stomps on its foot and it withdraws back into the trees, groaning slightly. "Anyway, I don't think that they're doing anything weird. Turn around, you'll see."

Miro shrugs, stops, and turns around, as does Matthew and Ricca.

"Hmm..." Miro begins. "I could've sworn that there were more people than this in our group..."

"Duh." Ricca says tonelessly. "Something kidnapped them, and it just tried to get me, too."

"Do you think it was those things?" Matthew asks.

"No, they're swifter than this." Ricca says. "Whatever it is, it's not that fast."

"But it's really sneaky..." Miro says. "Kinda like you, Matthew."

"Hey, yeah..." Matthew says. He suddenly realises something. "Uh-oh... It's Dad."

"Another parent?" Miro says.

"Yes." Ricca says. "And this is just the place for him. Dark, quiet, and full of trees. We'll have to be careful for this fight."

"...Can you actually call it a fight?" Miro asks. "I mean, he can come from anywhere and we wouldn't know it until it's too late..."

"Miro, I think I have to face him, alone." Mathew says. "The only thing that can beat a sneak in this kind of area is another sneak. I'll be right back."

Matthew suddenly vanished into the trees as well, and all is silent.

"...Are they fighting?" Miro asks.

"I can't be sure..." Ricca admits. "I... suppose they must be..."

"I can't even hear anything..." Miro says. "They're good..."

A few minutes passed, and Miro and Ricca simply stand beside one another, unsure if they should move.

"...This is the most boring fight I've ever been in." Miro mumbles, looking around unsurely.

"True..." Ricca agrees. "So... should we be doing something productive right now?"

"Like what?"

"Planning for the future?"

"...What?" Miro asks. "You mean, like, what route we should take in the forest?"

"Yes."

"Ricca, there is no route. We just keep going in the direction the map takes us."

"Of course, but what if we're diverted?"

"By what?"

"William."

Miro shakes slightly, clenching his teeth.

"Then we'll take him out and keep going." He says.

"Miro, William is-"

"Invincible? I won't believe it."

"No, he's not, but..." Ricca begins, pausing for dramatic effect. "I can't fight him."

"Why not?" Miro asks. "You just might be the only one nasty enough to send him running!"

"Yes, but..."

"Oh, no, no, not you!" Miro says in an exasperated tone. "You don't have the whole 'I can't hurt him because I long for his hand caressing my hair and his eyes staring into my own and his arms wrapped around me and I know that I'll never be hurt again' crap going on, do you?!"

"What? No! are you nuts?" Ricca says with more anger than usual. "I just think that we should keep him in in one piece for now..."

"I don't see why. He's a traitor."

"He's not a traitor, he was never on our side."

"Oh, yeah... wait, that's worse, isn't it?"

"Yes, but he's still not a traitor."

"Okay, fine, he's not a traitor. But he's an enemy, and we should crush him into a fine powder if he ever comes over."

"It's more likely that he'll crush us."

"Naah. We won't lose, we're the good guys."

"In general, do you think that people win against a boss in video games more often than they lose?"

"...No. But they win eventually. Trial and error, y'know."

"Yes, but we only get one shot."

"Whoa... Very true. Maybe we should-"

"Will you two SHUT UP?!" Comes two voices from the trees. Miro and Ricca stop talking and continue to wait and listen for whatever strange fight was going on.

A few more minutes later, Miro pipes up a bit.

"Err... What are you two doing, exactly?"

No response.

Suddenly, an elaborate series of traps are triggered all around them, sending spears, rocks, arrows, darts, logs, pop cans, turkey basters, small animals, sporks, oven mitts, CD covers, pencils, rubber bands, cotton balls, paper mache ballons, wooden carvings of geese, toothbrushes and toaster strudels flying in every direction, narrowly missing the two. When the firing stopped, Miro, who had clung on to the unflinching Ricca in fear, immediately let go once he had noticed this.

"...Sneaky." Ricca says, pretending not to have noticed Miro at all.

"Umm... So... Did we win?" Miro asks, looking around.

A rustling is heard in the bushes, and Matthew walks towards them, clutching his arm.

"You okay, man?" Miro asks.

"Fine." Matthew says. "I took a spork to the shoulder, but I think I just have to walk it off..."

"Did it just nick you? I don't see it sticking in anywhere." Miro says.

"No, no..." Matthew says. "It penetrated. All the way. Right now it's stuck in the tree that I was in front of."

"Ooooh... Can you still walk?" Miro asks.

"Will it require any bandaging?" Ricca asks, ignoring Miro's stupid question.

"Naah." Mattlew says. "It's just a flesh wound."

"Where have I heard that one before...?" Miro asks himself.

"Well, it's nothing compared to what Dad's suffering right now." Matthew reassures them. "He took a hedgehog to the gut and a wooden goose to the head, from what I saw."

Suddenly, a poof is heard, and a waft of smoke comes from behind some bushes.

-

Warping back in another cough-inducing waft of smoke, Gray stands in front of the other adults for a while, and then ungracefully collapses to the ground. At this point, they had set up camp and were in the middle of their sandwiches.

"So... How'd it go?" Popuri asks, nibbling into her sandwich again.

"I think that the concussion speaks for itself." Jack points out. "Gray's not the type to have a successful mission AND go into a coma."

"Not many are..." Mary says, getting up and walking over to Gray. "You okay?"

"...I... lost..." Gray says, groaning and flipping onto his back. "How... My own son... beat me..."

"You taught him well, Gray." Mary says in a soothing tone. "You should be proud. We have others who will take care of them but for now, you rest."

Nami seemed to be quite agitated about this, but kept quiet. Once again, these people had failed to make any progress with the reclaiming of her son. This was getting tiresome.

"I think we should wait until morning before we try again." She says finally. "Gray, did you at least slow them down?"

"Yes... They'll be held back... a little while."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes... And I noticed something while I was there... He's almost caught up to them."

"Who has?" Jack asks.

"Our trump card." Gray says, grinning in a sinister way.

"Ooh..." Elli says happily. "I think this calls for a collective evil laugh."

"...We're not evil, are we?" Jack asks.

"No, but it does seem to fit the moment." Ann says, shrugging.

"I suppose." Jack says. "Okay, on three; one, two three!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"...I can't believe I'm travellng with you people." Nami says, sighing and returning to her food.


	17. Part 11, Dawn of Another Strange Day

The next morning, Nami, Elli, Cliff, Gray, Ann, Mary, Popuri, Kai, Jack, and Jack waste no time in beginning their walk down the train tracks. Elli now had the unfortunate task of dragging two body casts behind her, since Gray had recently been knocked senseless by his battle of stealth and random objects. After about an hour of walking, they come up to a tunnel gouging through a small mountain.

"Well, that's odd." Mary says, looking up to the top of the tunnel's entrance.

"What is?" The hat-wearing Jack asks.

"The dent up there." Mary says, pointing to where she was looking. Indeed, a human-shaped imprint was present on the surface, going at least three inches in.

"Hmm... But I don't see anybody around." Nami says, searching. "And it looks fresh. Who could have kept going after something like that?"

"Who else?" Elli says. "It had to be William. He must have been taken off-guard by it."

"William?" Jack asks from inside of Nami's bag. "Who's that?"

"Our son..." Cliff says from inside his plaster bonds. "Try to keep up, will you?"

"Hey, I've found something!" Ann says suddenly, getting everyone's attention. She gets up from an area slightly off of the tracks and holds up an object. "Anyone know what this is?"

Nami walks over to Ann and takes it without a word. She looks at it closely.

"This is ours." She finally says.

"What? What's ours?" Jack asks, the bag wriggling around a bit. He unzips the bag and holds a hand out. "Let me see it!"

Nami placed it into Jack's hand and he pulls it into the bag.

"Oh... Hey, this is our goat milker! I thought that Miro said it fell into the river!" Jack says happily.

"He must've just taken it." Nami says. "But I wonder why...?"

"Self-defense." Jack replies. "When he was young, he saw me get my face stuck in the milker. After a few hours, he got it out, and I warned him that getting your face stuck in a goat milker is very bad and quite painful to remove if you can't reach the suction switch. He must've taken it since it's such a powerful device..."

"Right..." Nami says. "Or he could've just forgotten it was in his pack."

"Well, since that's cleared up, let's keep going." Mary says. "We have a lot of catching-up to do."

So they continued to walk, approaching the tunnel. Nami slows down, however, and thinks for a moment. The others also stop and look at her. Finally, she looks down to her bag.

"Hey, Jack, I've been wondering..." She begins.

"Huh? What have you been wondering?" Jack asks.

"When you weren't looking at my diary, where on me were you looking exactly?"

"What?! Oh, please don't bring that up again." Jack whines.

"Either you answer, or you're not allowed in the bag any longer." Nami explains.

"Grrm... Okay, fine." Jack says, shuffling around in the bag and taking a breath. "I was looking at... your face."

"...Really?" Nami asks.

"Yep." Jack replies. "In my opinion, the most interesting part of you is your mysterious, deep, smooth, hard, yet soft visage. Your very countenance inspired me to present you with that Blue Feather oh-so-long ago..."

"I thought it was my 'Just give me that stupid thing' that inspired you to present me with it." Nami says.

"Hmm... That, too, I suppose." Jack says. "But I fell for you because of your face, and your silent feelings deep inside that were just waiting to be released."

"Well... But wait, wasn't there anything else that you liked?"

"...Nami, you're a great person," Jack begins. "But I have to be honest, you have the figure of an ironing board."

"JACK! NO!" Kai yells, but it was far too late. Nami, in light of Jack's comment, removes the bag from her shoulders and holds it out in front of her. Sighing, she pulls her leg back and drop-kicks the bag into the tunnel, sending it slamming and bouncing across the walls, floor, and roof, and continuing to do so even when it was out of sight in the darkness.

"Come on." She says, beginning to walk again. "They'll probably stop before they reach the end of the tunnel. If not, we'll recover them in under a day, I'm sure."

-

Miro and the remainder of his group walked around the wooded area, looking for their missing friends. They had spent all of their time doing so, with basically no luck so far.

"...Don't you have any clue where your Dad would hide them?" Miro asks Matthew. Matthew only shrugs.

"I'm just his kid. He trained me, he knows more than I do about these sorts of things." Matthew replies.

"Oh, okay then- wait... he trained you to do this kind of stuff? Why?"

"Well, he trained me to be able to sneak food from the fridge in the middle of the night without Mom noticing." Matthew states. "It's a survival skill when you're a teenager."

"Very true." Miro replies, nodding.

"Quiet, you two." Ricca says. "I think I heard them..."

Indeed, Ricca heard two voices coming from the other side of a large, twisted row of bushes. They sounded exactly like they were: Kate and Anna. The others stay behind the bushes and listen to their conversation, for no particular reason other than dramatic effect.

"Hey, look, a hot spring!"

"Anna, that's not a..."

"Really? What is it, then?"

"A bog."

"Oh... Well, then it's a hot spring and a mud bath! This is great!"

"Anna... There's a difference."

"What?"

"Well, a hot spring is clean, warm, and alltogether a nice place to be in. A bog, on the other hand, is filthy, smelly, and filled with leaches, fungus, and possibly large, predatory creatures that haven't yet been given a name by scientists."

"Oh... Well, I guess I'll just leave my clothes over here on the side."

"Right then, let's go tell them that we're here!" Matthew says suddenly, already beginning to move through the bush. Ricca grabs him by the neck and pulls him back, however.

"Nice try, but you don't get the yarn until you buy the maker." She says sternly.

"Don't give me that metaphor crap, I'm a teenager!" Mattew says, struggling against Ricca's grip. "I wanna see! This isn't fair!"

"No kidding." Miro says, sighing. "Where were you when Kate stuck her nose in through the window in the middle of my... eugh, shower, Ricca?"

"Oh, well Kate's allowed, but you're not." Ricca explains.

"WHAT?" Miro and Matthew both yell.

"That is totally unfair! Why do we have to put up with this?!" Matthew protests. "I demand equal rights in this society! This is just a mustache and a cool accent short of communism!"

"Oh, be quiet." Ricca says. "There's more of us, so we win. Does that answer your question? Now let's get those two back here- Cover your eyes!" She orders. Miro and Matthew obey, rising up from the bush with their hands over their eyes. All that they could do now was hear voices.

"Kate, Anna, we've found you!"

"Oh, hi Ricca! Should we get going?"

"Maybe once you have something decent on, we will."

Matthew's hands shake, trying to restrain himself.

"MUST... NOT... UNCOVER EYES..." He says to himself. However, his intrepid and debauched teenage-sense overpowered him, and his arms shoot down to his sides.

"NN...k?" He says, turning his regular 'nnk' into a questioning one. He sighs and looks over to Miro.

"Miro, you can uncover your eyes." He says. "There's nothing new."

"Phew, good." Miro says, removing his hands and blinking. "But... what was that crack about 'once you have something decent on, we will'?"

"Just a test of endurance." Ricca says. "I figured that now would be as good a time as ever."

"So anyway, let's go." Kate says. "I'm sure that there's plenty of evil left in this forest, we ought to get through before it decides to come looking for us."

And so they continued on, walking through the darkened forest as fast as they dared. The sun should have been at full shine at this time of the day, but the strange tree cover obscured most of its light. The forest continued to darken as they walked, everything getting more and more dank and slimy as they went.

After about an hour of silent walking, they pass around a large tree and see one of the oddest sights in their life.

"Wha...?" Miro says.

"Is that a..." Matthew begins.

"It looks like one." Kate says.

"Yes, it seems so." Ricca concludes. "It is a toll booth."

Indeed, standing in front of them was a singular toll booth, equipped with a standard red-and-white striped bar and a collection bin for money. The group starts toward it uneasily, not sure of what exactly they should do. When they were close, a voice suddenly emenates from the booth.

"Toll please."

"AH!" Everyone but Ricca yells, looking at the booth window with widened eyes. A figure shuffles around inside it, lowers the window, and reveals itself to be...

"Harris?" Matthew and Anna say in disbelief.

"What in the Goddess' name are you doing here?!" Matthew asks.

"Enforcing the only law that ever has to be enforced." Harris says boredly, dusting off his policeman cap. "A toll must be paid to ener the Haunted Forest territory."

"Enter the...? We've been walking in here for hours!" Miro protests. "We're already in the forest!"

"I said the Haunted Forest Territory." Harris repeats. "It dosen't necissarily have to begin exactly where the trees start."

"Well, it at least has to be CLOSE, dosen't it?!" Miro points out.

"This is a Mayor Thomas government, what do you expect?" Harris asks.

"That's a good point." Ricca says, nodding. "What is the toll, exactly?"

"5000g per head." Harris says. The group's eyes collectively widen by two times their regular diameter and, after a stunned silence, they shuffle back a few steps and go into a huddle.

"How much money does everyone have?" Miro asks, looking to the others, who began searching their pockets. "I have... 300."

"370." Ricca says.

"40..." Anna says, sighing.

"150." Kate says.

"6... 7... 8... 8. I have 8." Matthew says.

"Hmm, that's..." Miro begins. "...not enough. Hey, wait a second..." He turns to Harris and walks right up to the booth.

"What's keeping us from just walking around?" He asks. "There's no fence or anything, just you and your little striped bar!"

"The law." Harris says, nodding. "There's a fine if you go into this territory without paying the toll."

"How much?"

"10,000g per offender."

"Gah! Well, is there any kind of discount we're eligable for?" Miro asks, the others now standing beside him as well.

"Minors get in free."

"Well, we're minors, aren't we?"

"Let me rephrase; Minors under 7 get in free."

"...Err... Early puberty?" Miro suggests, the others nodding.

"Not buying it." Harris says bluntly. "However, there is one more exception: Mexican dancers get in free as well."

"Wh... What?!"

"You heard me. But you're not Mexican dancers, so shoo!"

Groaning, the group turns and begins walking the other way, already devising a plan to get through the gate. It would be tricky, but it just might work.

After about thirty minutes of preparation, the group begins to sneak back to the booth, each dressed in flashy Mexican outfits. Before they were within sight of the booth again, just behind the large tree, Miro pauses for a moment, blinking.

"I... would NEVER have guessed... that I would wind up in this situation." Miro begins, trying to keep his ridiculously large hat from blocking his field of vision. "I am in a haunted forest... trying to get by a _toll booth_... being followed by a **Mariachi band**!"

"No one wanted it to come to this, Miro." Matthew says from behind him, carrying a heavy-looking guitar with a bit of difficulty. "In fact, before I went on this journey I vowed to myself that I would not get involved with cursed places, toll booths, or anything that included large hats. Yet, here I am."

"Well, what happens now, since you broke all three of those vows in under 24 hours?" Kate asks.

"I owe myself 20g."

"Hmm, you were really serious about it, weren't you?" Ricca asks sarcastically.

"Focus, people." Miro says. "And Kate, quit fumbling around with your outfit!"

"I can't help it!" Kate protests. "I hate this dress!"

"You always wear a dress, what's the problem?!"

"This one has all kinds of... beads and... colours. It's weird." Kate says.

"Oh, big deal!" Miro says. "Look at these pants! Look at these Leather Clench of Death pants that I have wear!"

Kate looks down to Miro's pants. She looks to the side of them, at the brand name. 'Leather Clench of Death'.

"Whoa... I thought that you were kidding." Kate says in amazement. "And... geez, your legs are skinny."

"They're usually thicker," Miro explains. "It's just that these pants fit me tighter than my own skin..."

"Can we please move on to a less unsettling subject?" Ricca asks.

"Please." Matthew says. "Anyway, let's get to business."

Everyone nods, and the group passes around the tree, approaching the booth as inconspicuously as possible. Miro walks up to the window.

"Hola, Senior tabanco-man!" He says. Thankfully, he had read through a Spanish dictionary earlier and found out that 'tabanco' meant booth.

"Aren't you the group that I sent away half an hour ago?" Harris asks suspiciously.

"That depends," Kate says. "Was the group that you sent away half an hour ago wearing these Mariachi clothes and speaking in poorly-attempted Mexican accent-es?"

"Hmm... Good point." Harris says. "Well, you're free to pass."

"Excellent! Moi, moi bien, Senior!" Matthew says happily, the whole group beginning to walk through the opened bar-gate. However, before they could actually pass it, Harris slams it shut again. This struck Miro in the head accidentally, leaving him unconscious on the ground for a short while.

"Allow me to finish." Harris says. "You're free to pass... IF you can defeat me in a competition!"

"What kind of competition...?" Kate asks suspiciously.

Harris opens a door on his booth and steps out.

"A... DANCE-OFF!" He proclaims, going into a... rather impressive dancing stance. If he were a female ballet dancer, that is.

"A... d... d... d-dance-off?" Miro says with sheer terror in his voice, picking himself up from the ground.

"Correct!" Harris says. "Now, who shall be my opponent?"

Ricca takes quick action at this.

"I elect the Merry Mariachi Troupe's incredible duo of Katriana and Mir...o." She proclaims, to Miro's absolute, total opposition.

Miro quickly motions for everyone to pull back and take a huddle again, and once they had, he cleared his throat.

"Let me just tell you something... I. DON'T. DANCE." He says as clearly as possible.

"He's right." Kate says. "And me dragging his feet around probably won't be enough to win this."

"Well, what should we do, then?" Matthew asks in a panickey tone.

"Don't worry." Ricca says. "This is all under control. In fact, these two will put on the best dancing act that any of us will ever see in front of our own eyes."

"What?! Have you left your good brain in the tool shed?!" Miro yells. "I'm going to say this one more time, and I'm not guarenteeing that it will be the last: I -that's me, by the way- DON'T -meaning do not, as in complete incapability, not to mention I don't like it- DANCE. Dancing, the thing that you do when you shuffle your feet around to a pattern and move rhythmically to the beat of music, yeah, I don't do that, EVER."

"Maybe not you," Ricca says, looking at him in a sinister way. "Maybe not the dark Miro, but-"

"You're not considering..." Matthew begins.

"No! No way am I going through that again!" Miro says, refusing the idea outright.

"There's no other choice." Ricca says grimly. "We can't do this without your help, Miro. We have to unleash the romantic you again."

"No! Please, there has to be some other way!" Miro begs, which was a bit of an uncommon sight.

"I'm afraid not. We need you and Kate to go back into the deep throes of love, or we'll never get by this guy." Ricca says. "Miro, Kate... kiss."

"NNNNNOOOOOO- Wait..." Miro says in mid-scream, looking over to Kate. "That's not really a bad thing, is it?"

"No, not really." Kate says, shrugging.

"Wait, but... aren't you going to go all 'What? No way! I don't like that person at all!' again?" Matthew asks in confusion, looking from one of them to the other.

"Well, no." Kate says. "It's already pretty official, there's no real point."

"Yes, any kiss lasting over 96 hours is a pretty sure sign." Miro admits. "So... Well, don't gawk at us! The last thing that I want is to get nervous and miss!"

The others turn around, breaking the huddle and waiting pitently. Miro, sighing and cracking his neck, and Kate, cracking her fingers and running a hand through her hair (not for effect, just to make sure that she or Miro wouldn't accidentally swallow some of it), approach one another timidly, look around to make sure that the others had turned fully away, and slowly, almost reluctantly allow their faces to touch. However, the moment that they did, their romantic sides broke free and they threw themselves into each other.

"...Are they done yet?" Matthew asks.

"Well... I hear 'muah'-ing." Anna points out. "So I think that they're just..."

"Siezing the moment?" Ricca says.

"Okay, let's just pull them apart." Matthew says. The group turns around and approaches the two, forcefully pulling them from each other.

"Remember your mission!" Ricca says, restraining Miro.

"My mission?!" Miro says. "My mission is the feel of Kate's gentle grasp around my waistline, I have no other thoughts but those of her and her polish, her elegance, her... symmetry! I can not possibly survive without it!"

"As can I, my godly thing of supreme supremacy!" Kate proclaims. "We mustn't ever be apart! Why must you hold us back?"

"You have a job to do!" Matthew says, pointing over to Harris, who was stretching and warming up. "You two are to face THAT middle-aged law enforcement person... or maybe he's a mailman, I dunno... Anyway, you must face HIM in a dance-off, and you must dance in the southern style that you are now dressed as!"

"...Ah, I see." Miro says, loosening himself from Ricca's grip and approaching Harris. Kate does so as well, both staring at him in a very challenging way.

"So, you are the one who dares to challenge Miro and the beautiful Katriana?" Miro asks, speaking in one of the most appealing Spanish accents ever concieved by human vocal cords.

"You talk big, but can you out-dance the 1965 Mineral Town Men's Ballet champ?" Harris says. "Only a TRUE dancer can defeat me! One with passion!"

"Passion?" Miro asks, laughing. "You fool! My heart burns with the passion of a thousand bulls during mating season! I will not fall to any man! _Ponerse!_"

"...Huh?" Harris says.

"It beans 'begin', you unsavory thing of wrinkled, graing imperfection!" Kate says, spitting at his feet. "Now prepare to meet your pride's end, fool!"

With that, Miro and Kate put themselves into a tango position and begin dancing to music that was being randomly strung together by the other kids. However, their moves were so majestic that the many, many mistakes made by the music were overshadowed by Miro and Kate's incredibly good, sometimes possibly gravity-defying moves. Harris had a tape recorder inside of his booth and it was playing a melodious ballet tune, to which he danced to the best of his abilities He pirouetted, he turned axles, he did front-flips, he did backflips, he did half-flips and stood on his hands in positions that would dazzle anyone bothering to watch. However, in the end, Kate and Miro end the contest with a potentially deadly series of spins and then a final, impressive dip. Harris was defeated.

"Oh... darn it." Harris says, walking inside the booth. "You really must be a band. Well, it was a nice exercise." He pushes a button and the bar lifts up, which wasn't exactly necissary but it did make things official.

"Excellent." Miro says, him and the rest of the group walking through. "Now, let us away. We've much more to do, don't we?" He looks over to Kate and smiles.

"Oh, yes." Kate says, smiling back at him. The others suddenly realise an error to their plan. None of them had a fish handy. Thinking reluctantly about what they'll have to go through until they find a good, solid fish, they proceed through the forest and out of sight.

-

About an hour after the group had made their way through the gate, another person walks up to the strange booth. The person's footsteps could be barely heard, and any breathing was completely silent. The pale gleam of moon-white hair was visible.

"Toll please." Harris says boredly, not bothering to look out the window.

"I am afraid I must pass through here without paying a toll." The person replies quite plainly.

"Look, everyone has to pay a toll to get through here, why are you so-" Harris cuts himself short, however, as he looks through the window to see who this person was. "Wow, hello, William! What happened to you? Sorry, but you've still got to pay a 5000g toll, even if you are white-haired and emotionally drained now. Now, BROWN hair is a totally different story-"

"I said," William begins, holding a hand out in a mind-control kind of position towards Harris. "I must pass through here without paying a toll."

Harris blinks a couple of times, but then sighs.

"Nope, everybody has to pay, so you do, too."

William lowers his hand, suddenly realising something.

"...No brain to control, right..." He recollects. Instead, he simply begins to walk by, lifting the bar above his head so he could pass.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Harris begins. "There's a 10,000g fine for- AAAAAHHH!!!"

For the next few seconds, the only thing that could be heard was Harris' scream echoing through the woods, and then all was silent again.


	18. Part 12, Bogs are Bad

Later that day, Nami's group emerges from the other side of the cave and, as Nami had guessed, found the now-quite-battered-looking bag containing Jack and Kai just outside of the exit. Nami pulls the twitching bag up onto her shoulder and continues on with the others.

"Jack, have you learned something today?" She asks, looking at the bag and still unsure if anyone inside was conscious or not.

"Yes..." Comes Jack's weary voice from within. "Do not... insult... the maintenance issues."

"The WHAT?"

"Umm, the, the... trademark imperfections?"

"IMPER-"

"I mean, uhh... the... unique... essence of... sheer loveliness that is your own exclusive perfection?" Jack corrects himself, and out of mainly fear, actually saying something that some could consider a poetic little buttering-up.

"Hmm... Yes, that sounds better." Nami says, giving a small smile and continuing on their way. She was in a slightly better mood now, to everyone's massive relief.

The next few hours of their journey are incredibly boring and unimportant, so now the focus will be switched to Miro's company.

-

"Ah, doesn't this forest just shine with the beauty of ages, my sweet?" Kate asks Miro, both of whom were walking practically against each other.

"No, it is not that, but your own radiance that fills this place with such great artistry." Miro corrects her.

"You are so sweet... Speak Spanish to me." Kate requests.

"Well... I don't know any, really." Miro admits.

"Oh, well then, speak in that accent again."

"Gladly." Miro says, going into his unnaturally good accent. "Your very footfalls upon this grimy landscape refresh it and bring new life to all things around them. Your very glance is enough to give me strength and keep me moving through this weathered path. The very memory of you could make my once-cold heart burst with feelings that I may have thought to be long forgotten..."

At this point, the group had at least removed their poorly-fitting outfits and returned to their original things. Yet still, the cost for the success of their toll booth crossing was making progress either a blessing or a fate worse than having seventeen chopsticks shoved into either eye, depending on who you were at the moment. Ricca, Anna, and Matthew trudge ahead of the other two, clenching their stomachs in defiance of their very-much-enforced need to puke. Matthew was the first one brave enough to open his mouth and speak.

"We need... to anger Miro... soon..." He says.

"But the only thi-" Anna begins, but is interrupted by a vomit reflex action that she only barely manages to swallow back down. "...But the only thing that we know is good enough to snap him out of it is a slap by a fish. And we don't have any."

"...Then we'll find something else." Ricca says. "I mean, it couldn't be too difficult to get Miro mad."

"Yeah, not usually, but..." Matthew says. "This is, like, super-harmonious-peaceful-low-key-bland-tranquil-and-totally-serene Miro. We COULDN'T get him mad before, how can we now?"

"Well, maybe a slap by something else will work?" Anna suggests.

"I still think that killing Kate would be an understandable measure to go to." Ricca says. "Better her than us."

"True, but..." Matthew begins. "I have a theory."

"Another one?" Anna asks.

"Yes." Matthew says. "If Miro sees Kate in a state of injury or, as our case would be, death, there just might be a chance that..."

"What?" Ricca asks. "I don't care about dramatic pauses right now, my gut is clenched up as it is."

"Oh, right..." Matthew says. "There's a chance that the trauma it would cause him would make him go totally 'poetic justice' on us all."

"Can you explain?" Ricca asks.

"Yes." Matthew says. "Now bear with me, this might be a bit complex. Miro has a counter-balance of emotion, one end of it is made primarily of his mother's side, which is usually dominant, and the other end of it is made mostly of his father's side, which is surpressed until the moment he allows its release to be made. Now, when the release is made, what thing does he seem to focus every facet of his mind on?"

"Kate, duh." Ricca and Anna say.

"Exactly." Matthew says. "Now, if harm befalls Kate, Miro would obviously make a response when he is in this state. And if Kate is injured or if she meets her end, and Miro sees... He might have a reaction of huge proportions..."

"How?" Anna says.

"If I am correct with this theory, his romantic side would be shocked and possibly crushed, and as thoughts of anger go into his mind, his dark side would rush out in an almost supernatural manner. Not only that, but it would be fuelled by the deep feelings of his romantic side, and the two would fuse in a chemical reaction that would spontaniously activate his adrenaline glands, speed his respritory and circulatory rate, sharpen his mind's reaction time, and possibly amplify his average physical ability by a measure of between 1.5 and 3 times its normal amount."

"..."

"..."

"Err... He'll get really, really, REALLY mad." Matthew says in response to Ricca and Anna's blank stares.

"How mad?" Ricca asks.

"Well, in scientific standards... 'InuYasha with an ear infection' mad." Matthew says.

"Ooh... so, bad idea?" Anna asks.

"Immensely bad idea." Matthew says in agreement.

"Well, we have to do something..." Ricca says. "I mean, we can't just leave him like this, can we?"

"Not if we want to keep our sanity - and our lunch – in check." Matthew says. "But I don't know what we could do..."

"I have an idea!" Anna says, pointing ahead of them. "We can go fishing in that pond!"

"You mean the... bog?" Ricca asks. "...Well... I suppose it's our only choice. Miro! Kate! We're taking a break for a while! So just... get yourselves comfortable... but not too much, we can do without 'best-left-censored' noises coming from back there!"

"Worry not, you have my word." Miro replies, without even prying his gaze from Kate.

"...Right..." Ricca replies.

A few minutes later, Matthew, Ricca, and Anna are sitting on the edge of the bog, fishing. Well, at least Ricca and Anna were. Matthew had not brought a fishing rod with him, so he simply sat down and stared into the stinky, bubbling bog in hopes of a fish jumping up and landing on his lap.

"I really doubt if there are any fish in here." Ricca says, tugging at her line with a bit of impaitence.

"Just be paitent, I'm sure that something will come up." Matthew says, resting his head on his hands.

"...Hey, does anyone have anything to talk about? Y'know, just to pass the time?" Anna asks.

"No." Ricca replies. "We've been living in Mineral Town ever since we were born. Our lives have basically been 'wake up, do a chore, walk around, talk, eat, try to convince Doug that we're old enough to sample a wine, sleep, repeat'."

"That's not true." Matthew says. "...Sometimes there's a festival."

"Oh, yay," Ricca says sacastically. "So sometimes we get to lose contests, watch chickens wrestle, and supply ourselves with enough buckwheat flour and rice cakes to last a lifetime."

"Well, it's better than nothing." Matthew says.

"Only barely." Ricca replies.

"...Ricca, you've been really bitter lately." Anna says, looking over to her. "Is something wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" Matthew asks. "She's always like this."

"Yeah, but, she used to be... less like that, back when the whole group was together. Y'know, back when William was with us." Anna says.

"Where are you going with this?" Ricca asks, glaring over at her.

"Err, nowhere, but..." Anna begins, slightly nervously. "It's just that William was the only person who ever made you smile."

"Ugh, I smile once and it follows me for the rest of my life..." Ricca says in frustration. "Listen, he was just being stupid. I was laughing _at_ him, not _with_ him."

"Oh, don't lie, Ricca." Matthew says. "I saw you two that one time at the dock, I know-"

"We were placing our bets for the Horse Races that were going on the next day." Ricca says. "We were just splitting our money between us."

"I see." Matthew says. "Well, what about that time at the Town Square?"

"We were counting the number of cobblestones on the ground, we had nothing else to do." Ricca replies.

"And at the Hot Springs?"

"I didn't go in, I was just soaking my feet. I didn't even notice him."

"The roof of the Poultry Farm?"

"Tic-tac-toe."

"Mother's Hill?"

"Arm wrestling."

"The Fireworks Festival?"

"...Watching the fireworks, duh. We were all there in a group."

"Yeah, but you two were pretty close."

"I was tired, I needed something to lean on."

"And you didn't just use the post that you were standing next to?"

"William's squishier. Now, if you're done admitting that you've been stalking me and William constantly, let's get back to the task at hand."

"Right." Matthew says, looking back to the oozing pit in front of them.

"Hmm..." Anna says. "You know, I'm starting to believe Ricca. There's probably nothing here."

"Just wait..." Matthew says. "...Like I said before, I'm sure that something will come up."

And indeed, at that moment, something did. However, in some bizarre twist of irony, it was a thing that could only be defined as 'something'. A huge, thick tentacle shot up from the swamp, writhing around in the air for a moment before stopping and directing itself at them.

"...This isn't going to end well..." Matthew mumbles. Once again, he was correct. The tentacle shot forward, wrapping itself around a bug-eyed Matthew's neck and yanking him into the bog before anyone had time to react.

The other two remain silent for a moment, blinking.

"...I'm not going in after him." Ricca finally says.

"Well... what should we do?" Anna asks. "Miro and Kate aren't going to help, they're too busy..." She looks behind her, and quickly turns back forward after seeing them. "...doing that."

"Well, let's just fish for him." Ricca says.

"...What bait should we use?" Anna asks.

"Anna, I really don't think it matters." Ricca replies. Then, after the two had reeled in their lines, they cast them into the water again, approximately where they saw Matthew go in.

"...Hey, I got something!" Anna says happily.

"Me, too." Ricca replies. "On three, we pull. One... two... three!"

The two yank at their lines as hard as they could, reeling in and straining to get their hooks to the shore. Finally, in a sudden 'thlock'ing sound, the catch was yanked onto the shore. However, this wasn't exactly what they were looking for. It also explained why it was so immensely difficult to get the thing out of the water. The mysterious food connissuer known only as the Gourmet leaps from the bog, his tremendously ugly fuschia suit still sparkling clean, and lands in front of the two. He points over to Anna and opens his whale-like mouth to speak, the two fishing lines still hanging out of it.

"Your choice of bait was simply breathtaking, it leaves me with dreams of being a real fish just so that I may have an excuse to try it every day!" He says happily. He then turns to Ricca.

"However, yours is best left uncommented on. I found that its texture is questionable and its taste was quite uncooperative with my tounge."

Anna and Ricca look at each other for a moment. The same exact thought went through their minds and they nod silently.

"Catch and release." They both say, removing their hooks from the Gourmet's mouth, grabbing him by either arm, and tossing him back into the bog.

"Let's try this again." Ricca says, the two throwing their lines into the murky waters yet again. Quickly, they get another bite, and they begin pulling at their lines.

"Don't give him any slack!" Anna says.

"Do I ever give him slack?" Ricca asks rhetorically.

"Good point. Pull!" Anna says, and the two yank at their lines again, reeling in something that felt a lot more like Matthew. Finally, with a good jerk, they see Matthew's hat, and eventually the rest of his head, penetrate the surface. Spitting and gasping, Matthew looks at them.

"It's got my leg!" He yells.

"Uh-oh, then we'd better get him out in a hurry." Anna says, pulling again. However, for a moment, Matthew was pulled into the water again. A few seconds later, his head pops out of the water once more.

"No, please, take your time!" Matthew says sarcastically.

Ricca thinks for a moment. "I suddenly have the urge to cut my line..."

"NO!" Matthew yells.

"Kidding, kidding." Ricca reassures him. With that, the two begin pulling once more with every ounce of strength that they could muster up. These two were straining at their lines like bad actors at a Highschool play. And finally, with an unexpected release, the tentacle under the water lets go and sends Matthew shooting out of the bog. This also makes Anna and Ricca fall flat on their backs. Anna quickly got up, but it was a bit too quickly. Matthew, still in mid-air, smashes into her and they both land a good ten meters from where they started.

"Matthew, you're alive!" Anna says happily once they had regained consciousness.

"Anna, I didn't kill you!" Matthew replies, also quite happy.

"Get up, you two." Ricca says, standing above them.

"Oh, right, yes..." Matthew says, him and Anna quickly getting to their feet. "Oh, and look at what I found when I was down there, in that thing's stomach." He holds out something in his right hand.

A fish.

"Yes!" Anna says, half-strangling Matthew with a hug. "Not only did you not die, but you came back with a fish! You're the most useful person I've ever met!"

Ricca decides not to wait for this to end, and takes the fish from the red-faced-half-due-to-embarassment-and-half-due-to-strangulation Matthew. She then walks over to the unceaseingly wooing Miro and Kate, and taps Miro's shoulder.

"Miro," Ricca begins.

"Hmm, yes?" Miro asks, reluctantly prying his eyes from Kate and looking over to her.

Instead of replying, Ricca simply pulls her arm back and strikes Miro across the face with the fish. Miro remains silent for a moment, and then blinks once and speaks.

"Y'know... I'm not sure if I should say 'oww' or 'eww'."

"You should just be happy that I brought you back." Ricca replies, noticing that Miro's usual sarcastic tone has returned.

"Yeah, sure, but couldn't you have found ANOTHER WAY TO DO IT?" Miro says angrily, wiping slime from his face. "I hate it when people do that!"

"Exactly, that's what brings you back." Ricca says. "The total hate of it."

"A... Are you feeling well, dear?" Kate asks, looking at him with concern.

"Oh, right, we have to bring her back." Ricca says. "Well... What does she hate? She came back last time when you threw her off of you, I suppose we can do that again."

"Naah, I have a better idea." Miro says, looking over to Kate. "Hey, Kate, you're ugly."

"...WHAT?" Kate yells, drawing her fist and slamming it into Miro's jaw. Miro span once and hit the floor in a heap, groaning in pain.

"...Well, that was easy." Ricca comments. Suddenly, a few strange bubbles come from the swamp and pop, an odd smoke coming from them and wafting away. The group simply shrugs. assuming that it was just swamp gas.

-

Back at the adults' group, they simply walk along as they had been doing for the past few hours. However, interrupting this routine was a sudden puff of smoke, revealing the Gourmet in all of his vast uglyness. In his hand he held the Teleport Stone. He smiled at them.

"So... How did it go?" Elli asks him. "Did you find the kids?"

"Why, yes I did." The Gourmet replies happily. "And I must say, at least one of them has excellent choice in fishing bait!"

"...So where are they?" Mary asks. "You're not injured, so you must have won. Do you have them with you?"

"Umm... You wanted me to bring them?" The Gourmet begins, stammering for a moment. "Oh, umm, yes, it must have slipped my mind... Err, I mean, they were far too skilled, I didn't stand a ghost of a chance, really."

"...Shouldn't you be somewhat hurt if you actually fought them and lost?" Ann asks suspiciously.

"...Umm... Yes, I... I suppose..." The Gourmet replies, trying to think of smething he could do to get out of this. Suddenly, he clenches his chest and gasps.

"Augh! Cholesterol!" He says before collapsing to the earth, which in itself caused the ground to rattle.

Nami, who had remained silent until now, finally felt her impaitence take over. This was the last straw.

"That's it!" She yells angrily, dropping her bag and stomping over to the Gourmet's body. "If you people can't get my son back to me..."

She takes the Teleport Stone from the 500lb man's hands forcefully and holds it up in the air.

"THEN I'LL DO IT MYSELF!" She yells, vanishing in a puff of smoke that had actually turned red due to her anger.

Everything was dead silent for a couple of moments. No one dared to move or speak in light of this new development.

"So..." The Jack in the bag finally says, climbing out since it no longer had a carrier. "When Nami brings the kids back, does anyone want to go for a Blue Punch?"


	19. Part 13, Possibly a Bad Ending?

About an hour after they had passed the nasty bog – keeping as far a distance from it as humanly possible as they went aound it – Miro and the rest of the group are trekking through the woods yet again. Things finally seem to have gotten normal again... as normal as a trip through a dark, evil cluster of trees could be, at least.

Miro spends a lot of this time thinking silently. Suddenly, he seems to be struck with an idea and laughs to himself for a bit.

"What is it?" Kate asks him.

"Heh... It's just that I finally get it." Miro replies.

"Get what?" Kate says, obviously confused.

"Lineage!" Miro says, laughing again. "Anna's Dad said that the secret to finding the Place is in the family lineage!"

"...Uh huh...?"

"Stretch marks!" Miro says. "Lineage! Stretch marks! Do you get it?"

"Yes, we got it." Ricca says. "I got the joke at least five days ago. It's funny, but only if you get it within a week of it being told."

"Jeez... Making you laugh is like trying to pump air into a sock; Someone can try as hard as they can, but you'll just stay totally flat." Miro comments, rolling his eyes.

"Ah-" Anna begins, getting ready to speak but suddenly crossing her arms in front of her for warmth, due to a cold chill that passed by the group. Everyone else followed suit, feeling the breeze nearly penetrate them. "Whoa... Brr... What was that?"

"Well, it is Fall..." Miro begins, sounding unsure himself. "I guess that it could have been a cool breeze coming in from the North..."

"That didn't come from the North." Kate observes. "It came from... behind us."

The entire group whips around at once, looking into the shadowy area behind them. Everything was totally silent. No one dared to move for a while.

"...It could've just been a cold front, looping around, you know..." Matthew says hesitantly.

"It was a pretty tiny one." Anna says.

"I don't hear anything in there." Miro says. "I don't think that there is anything..."

"Let's get going, I don't want to be here any longer than I have to." Kate says. "And Ricca, are we nearly out of this place?"

Ricca nods slightly, without speaking.

"All right!" Anna says happily. "So we're nearly there? We've nearly found it? That's great!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's all great." Miro says. "Now let's get moving."

The group nods in agreement and turns, walking at a faster pace now.

"I hope that whatever that was doesn't decide to say hi." Matthew says.

"Well, we're nearly out of the woods." Miro points out. "The trip's almost over. Before we even know it, we'll be-"

"Home." A voice from behind them says. This causes the group to freeze on the spot, and eventually they reluctantly turn to see who it was.

Nothing.

Confused and nervous now, they begin to turn in their desired path again. However, as soon as they look forward for the third time they come nose-to-nose with the exact person that they did not want to meet.

William.

Shouting in panic, the group scrambles to turn around and run for it back into the deep woods. However, William somehow manages to get in front of them again without anyone even seeing a movement from him.

"You will not escape." William says, plain-as-day. His arms are crossed, but he seemed calm, not impatient.

"Just watch us!" Miro retorts, him and the rest of the group turning to run again, and after William places himself in front of them again, they turn in the other direction, to which William puts himself in front of them once more. After about twenty of these attempts, the group finally quits. William was in front of them, and the route to the Place was behind them.

"If you are quite finished, come with me." William says, lowering his arms but otherwise not moving.

"Uhh... Could... Could you give us a minute?" Miro requests. William nods very slightly and the group goes into a football huddle.

"Okay, I can think of two words for this situation: We Are Toast." Miro says to them.

"Miro, that's... never mind." Kate says, sighing. "Anyway, we're going to have to fight this guy if we want to keep going."

"Are you nuts?" Matthew asks. "William's too strong, we'll never win!"

"Do you have any other plans?!" Kate asks angrily.

"Why not give him a present and walk away while he's opening it?" Anna suggests.

"...Besides that." Kate says dryly.

Ricca, quiet up until now, breaks out of the huddle without a word.

"Ricca, what are you doing?" Matthew asks worriedly.

"I'll do it." Ricca says, without looking at him. She walks around the rest of the huddled group and towards William, staring him straight in the eye.

"Ricca, don't do it!" Anna says, her and the rest of the group also breaking the huddle. "You can't win!"

"Yeah, listen to her!" Miro says in agreement. "You won't get out of this one! Ricca? Ricca!"

"Quiet." Ricca says, hushing the rest of the group. "This is my fight. Better me than the rest of you. Go."

"But Ricca-" Kate begins.

"Go!" Ricca repeats, looking over to them for just a second. The rest of the group nods reluctantly and takes off down the route.

"Nothing is keeping me from going around you and following them." William says.

"Oh, really? You know where they are going, but if you leave me here, I promise that you'll never be able to find me." Ricca says in a challenging tone.

"...Possibly." William says. "Rethinking this, it would logically be more efficient to dispatch you first."

"Just try!" Ricca says, aiming a kick at him. William grabs her foot, however, and pushes it upward. This causes Ricca to backflip, but amazingly she lands on her feet.

"Heh... You call that a move?" Ricca mocks.

"Rest assured, you have not yet witnessed anything near my true ability." William replies.

-

Running down the path as fast as they could, the remainder of the group tries to put as much distance between themselves and William as possible. Miro looks around once and notices something.

"Hey! Why am I running in the front?" He asks.

"You always do!" Kate replies.

"Yeah, and I'm always the first to get hurt because of it!" Miro says.

"Well, let someone else run in front!" Matthew says.

"Okay." Miro says, grabbing Kate and placing her in front of him as they ran. "There, now I'm safe!"

"So you're putting me in danger for your own sake?" Kate asks.

"Yep." Miro replies, nodding.

"My, how generous of you." Kate says sarcastically.

"I do what I can." Miro says.

However, two steps later, Miro's plan is undone. Kate, being the one in front, catches her foot on a trip wire which sets off a trap. This trap turns out to be a net which quickly snags the majority of the group and hangs them up on a tree branch. The only one not caught by this trap was, ironically, Kate.

"Oww!"

"Hey, watch the shoulder!"

"Ouch! You've got your elbow in my..."

"Ugh, my foot's stuck under you!"

"My whole body's at a bad angle right now!"

"This huuuuuurts..."

"Quiet, Miro!"

"That wasn't me, that was Anna!"

"That wasn't me, that was Matthew!"

"OWW! Hands! Hands!"

"Oh, sorry..."

The three quiet down after a while and look around. They notice that Kate wasn't trapped with them.

"Oh, I'm not in the front ONCE and it turns out that I wouldn't get hurt if I was?!" Miro yells in frustration.

"I guess that's what you get." Kate says. "Just hang there for a second, I'm gonna try to get you out."

"'Hang there', that's classic, Kate." Miro replies sarcastically.

"Hey, did anyone notice something about this net?" Matthew asks.

Anna sniffs the air. "Hey, yeah, it smells like chocolate!"

"Wait a minute..." Miro says. "This is our net! We left it at the train tracks after I got hit!"

"But how did it get all the way over here...?" Matthew asks nervously.

Suddenly, they cease speaking after hearing a suspicious noise in front of them. Kate turns in that direction, preparing for whatever it was. The sound of footsteps heading toward them were heard, and whoever it was didn't bother to conceal the sound. A figure was soon visible, which Miro immediately recognized.

"Oh, bloody friggin' crap!" He says in a panicky tone, struggling at the net to the discomfort of its other occupants.

"Wh-What?! What is it?!" Matthew asks, a bit angrily due to Miro's flailing.

"It's... It's... MOM." Miro answers, not ceasing the struggle.

"You mean the very gene that made you dark and irritable?" Matthew asks.

"Yes..."

"Oh, this isn't good..."

Now, all three of them join in the effort of worthlessly convulsing in the net. However, they are stopped by a word.

"Stop."

Not a creative word, but a word. This word came from none other than the now-revealed silhouette of Nami, eyes their regular, slightly-glazed-over selves, hair exactly the same as always, and the only difference from her regular self being that she had a malevolent smirk on her face.

"Looks like I didn't get you all at once." She says. "Well, no problem. It's just a matter of persuasion."

"You ain't persuading any of us!" Kate says, glaring at Nami.

"Forget it, Kate!" Miro says. "Mom's too good, you have to run!"

"I'm not leaving any of you!" Kate replies stubbornly. "Besides, I don't have the map. There's only one way out of this..."

"Is that a challenge, Miss?" Nami asks, sounding amused. "What do you think you can achieve? You're young and inexperienced."

"And you're old and rusty." Kate retorts.

"Rusty?! OLD?" Nami says angrily, balling her hands into fists. "Why don't you tell that to Muffy and Celia?!"

"Why? Did you beat them in your last Shuffleboard match?" Kate asks.

"SHUFFLEB- How dare you!" Nami says, stepping towards her. "That's no way to talk to your future mother-in-law!"

"Mommmmm..." Miro groans.

"Well, why don't you do something about it?" Kate challenges, both of them ignoring Miro completely.

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Nami replies. "I'll show you old and rusty!"

"I bet you will." Kate agrees.

"Grr... Enough." Nami says, returning to a more calmed state. "Let's end this. Listen, I don't want to damage my son's girlfriend too badly-"

"**MOM!**"

"-so I'll let you come with me quietly, and you won't have to go inside the net."

"Err... Well, that's nice of you," Kate begins, shocked, but not quite as shocked as Miro obviously was, about Nami's remark. "But there's only one way I'm going back, and I believe it's called 'not at all'."

"What about 'dragged unconscious along with the others'?" Nami questions.

"No, that's how you're leaving here." Kate corrects her.

Nami shuts her eyes, determining that Kate had left her with no other choice, and suddenly runs at her.

"Uh-oh. Anna, throw me something!" Kate demands, stepping back slightly. Anna tries to reach for her pack, but was at an odd angle and couldn't quite reach it.

"I- I can't!" She says. "Matthew, you have to reach it!"

"I don't care who reaches it, just hurry!" Kate says, ducking under Nami's first blow and attempting to strike back. However, Nami just grabs her hand and throws her a distance away. She lands hard but gets up quickly.

"I... think I can reach..." Matthew says, trying to snake his hand toward the backpack. "Just... have to go... behind your leg here and maybe through here and... Hey, is this it?"

"EEK! NO!"

"Oh, sorry!!" Matthew says, suddenly receiving a kick in the head from Anna. "Oww! Sorry! Sorry!" He repeats. Reaching farther, he finally finds a clip and unclips it. Anna's handy weapon supply was now open. He reaches into the backpack with a feat of flexibility and pulls something out, shoving it through the net and letting it fall to the ground.

This weapon was a knife. A Swiss Army Knife.

Kate sees it fall to the ground, but so does Nami. Thankfully, Kate gets a grip on Nami's vest and pulls her back before she can reach it. Kate then grabs it, spinning around and facing Nami with it. Suddenly she notices that nothing was pulled out, so she tugs at the first part that she sees. It comes out with a soup spoon.

Nami snickers. "Would you like to see what I have? I remembered to bring these this time..." She puts her hands into her pockets and pulls out her two big, trusty carving knives.

"Oh, jeez..." Kate says, fiddling for another thing from her weapon. This time she pulls out a socket wrench. "...Good enough."

Kate swings the weapon at Nami, to which she quickly steps backward to dodge. Persisting, Kate steps forward and swing it again, horizontally, to Nami's face. However, Nami blocks the attack by catching it in her teeth.

"Whoa!" Matthew says in amazement.

"I told you she was tough." Miro says. "Mom once pulled a live grizzly bear out of our doghouse, knocked it unconscious, and dragged it back out to the wild."

"Yeah, but that at least doesn't involve her teeth..." Matthew replies. "What does she floss with, steel wires?"

"...Actually, yes." Miro admits, looking almost proud. "And one time, she chewed through a block of concrete and asked for seconds!"

"Why in the world would she do that?" Anna asks.

"She didn't want to seem rude. It was Dad's cooking day."

"Oooooh..."

Nami, meanwhile, spits out the socket wrench part that Kate was holding onto, which caused Kate to stumble slightly. Not wasting any time, Nami pulls her hand back and strikes Kate in the back of the head with the handle of one of her knives. Kate falls unconscious on the ground, to the gasps and shock of the people in the net.

_-------_

_The sun was shining brightly in the beautiful Spring morning that Forget-Me-Not Valley was so famous for, and the people were walking around quite randomly, simply wanting to enjoy the weather rather than actually make progress in their quaint little lives. This was a nice, but slightly boring day for young Kate, and she found herself walking down the hill and sitting, quietly thinking of something to pass the time with._

_After a moment, the figure of an adult trots to her, holding something much smaller. Turning her head, Kate notices that this person was Jack, the idiot farmer who lived on top of the hill. The thing he was holding was his young son, who seemed to be a bit reluctant to be out of the house, but went along with his Dad since he didn't know better yet._

"_You see this, Miro?" Jack asks, motioning to Kate and holding his son in front of her. "This is called a prospect. Can you say that? PRRROOOSSSPECT."_

"_Pwospit." The boy repeats._

"..._Close enough." Jack says. "Say, Kate, what do you think of my son?"_

_Kate had seen the child before, walking with his mother, but she never took much heed of his existence. Mind you, seeing him up-close now acted as a reminder that Hugh wasn't the only other child she could torment- err, play with._

"_He's sooo cuuuute!" Kate says, standing up and looking Miro eye-to-eye._

"_Really?" Jack says. He then looks at the child in his arms. "Do you hear that, Miro? She thinks you're cute! That almost definitely means that you'll marry her!"_

"_Ma...wwy?" Miro repeats, unsure of what the word meant. He was bright, for a young toddler, but his vocabulary still had some gaps to fill._

"_Yep!" Jack says. He then looks at Kate. "So, when can I expect some grandkids?"_

"_What?" Kate asks. "Eww, I'm not gonna marry him!"_

"_Oh... I guess you're still too young to understand-"_

"_I'm gonna marry HIM!" Kate finishes, pulling out a picture of David Hasselhoff and showing it to Jack._

"..._Oy. That'll be tough to compare with..." Jack admits. "Jeez, just look at the abs on that guy..."_

"_But, what's your kid's name, anyway?" Kate asks, putting the picture away and looking up at Jack._

"_His name's Miro." Jack says._

"_Oh..." Kate looks back down to the kid, and stared him right in the face._

"_HI MIRO!" She yells happily, causing Miro to yell in surprise and grab onto his father, trembling. Kate laughs and waves as they walk away. That Miro kid was going to be a real fun time to mess around with._

_-------_

"Ugghhh..." Kate groans as she regains her consciousness from the concussion-triggered dream sequence. She opens her eyes and gets up from the ground, noticing first that she and her friends were still in the same place, and that no one had been taken. Kate spots Nami leaning against a tree, as though she was waiting for Kate to get back up. When she notices that Kate had, she looks over to her and walks from the tree.

"I re-thought how the fight was going, and I found it unfair." She says. "You weren't prepared right from the beginning, so I think you deserve a second chance."

"You do realize that when the bad guy gives the good guy a second chance, that the good guy usually ends up winning?" Kate asks, brushing herself off. "I mean, it's almost like a law."

"I realize that." Nami says. "But there is no real 'bad guy' in this situation. You have your reasons and I have mine. We're good guys for different causes, so in theory, it can go either way."

"If you say so..." Kate says, reaching for her knife again. Trying to decide which one to pull, Kate is reminded of her dream and finds a red, Miro-colored handle in amongst the others crammed into the little Swiss Army Knife. Pulling it out, with a bit of difficulty, Kate finally gets a good one. A really big, really shiny sword that totally defied the physics of the tiny little handle that it usually remained sheathed in. Kate wasn't one to ask questions, however, and she looked over to Nami smugly.

"Round two?" She asks.

"Begin." Nami replies.

(HEY! I haven't had an author's note in a while, so I'd like to take this time to thank my reviewers, and reply to a particular reviewer's mention of wanting to draw a character from my Fic. If this person wants to follow through with the idea, I can post up an in-deph physical description of William when I do my next chapter. Anyway, I'm leaving you in suspense with this, since it's getting a bit long. G'bye!)


	20. Part 14, FIGHT SCENE!

(…Hmm… Bah, you don't wanna hear me talk. Let's just get back to the action!)

Kate and Nami stare at one another for a moment, shifting their weapons in their hands with some anticipation. Suddenly, Kate runs at her and swings her ridiculously-oversized Swiss Army blade at Nami, to which Nami raises her knives and blocks the attack. Kate pulls back and lashes out again, and Nami continues to block a few more of these attacks before jumping back a safe distance.

"You'll have to do far better that that to impress me." She says.

Kate doesn't reply and instead dashes at Nami and swings her sword a full horizontal circle. Nami, in a feat of really impressive physical agility that could only be improved if the move was done in slow motion, jumps, leaps off of the flat end of Kate's blade as she swung it, and kicked Kate directly on the forehead. Kate staggered back and fell to the ground.

"That's not a good fighting tactic, falling down so many times." Matthew says observantly.

"Shut up." Miro replies. "She's just getting warmed up."

"No, she's just getting beat up." Matthew corrects him.

"Anna, kick his head again." Miro requests. Anna nods and dashes Matthew across the skull with her ankle.

"OWW! Just because Miro says to do it doesn't mean you have to!" Matthew says.

"Yeah, but I felt like it." Anna replies, smiling.

"Well, what if I did whatever I felt like doing, huh?"

"I don't see any problem with that…"

"Okay, well as long as you don't-"

"EEK! HEY!"

"OWW! Quit kicking!"

"EEK!"

"OWW!"

"EEK!"

"OWW!"

"EEK!"

"OWW!"

"WILL YOU TWO QUIT THAT?!" Miro yells at them. "I'm trying to watch the fight!"

"Oh…" Matthew says.

"Sorry…" Anna says.

Indeed, the fight was picking up again. Kate had gotten to her feet and she held her forehead tenderly for a moment. She then turned to Nami and lowered her hand back to her blade.

"Okay, NOW I'm getting angry!" She yells.

-

Ricca strikes out at William with her fists at a rate that would stun most people in disbelief, but William merely swats her blows away like flies intruding his space, keeping one hand in his pocket almost as though to mock her. Ricca only intensifies her attack, with more anger and general emotion than she had shown in a while. William finally tires of this and, with a sudden forward motion of his arm, pushes Ricca a startling five meters backward and causes her to hit the ground pretty hard. However, she uses the momentum of the fall to roll herself back to her feet.

"You… had better put both of those hands out… if you know what's good for you…" Ricca warns him, breathing a bit heavily.

"It is unnecessary." William replies. "Your current output does not require both hands to counter, so I will instead conserve energy by using only one."

"Heh. But I thought you wanted to get me out of the way as quickly as you could." Ricca says. "You're not going easy on me just for my sake, are you?"

"Correct. I am not." William says. "However, from previous experience I know that you are capable of more than you are currently doing. You seem to be 'going easy' on me for my own sake."

"You kidding me? I want to see you chewing topsoil, I'm not holding back!" Ricca says angrily, and then she runs toward William again. With a quick movement, she swings her leg around and kicks him directly on the side of his head. This one connected, but William was almost completely unaffected. It looked like he had let that one hit. William casually reaches and grabs Ricca's ankle, and with a feat of unnatural, uncanny, and completely unfair strength he swings her a full circle around and throws her into a large tree. The old wood that Ricca crashed into cracked and splintered slightly, and left an imprint of Ricca behind as she fell to the ground, landing on one knee.

Although now injured, Ricca lifts herself slowly back to her feet and looks at William coldly.

"Was that supposed to be… a finisher?" She asks. "Don't make me laugh. I once had three cows sit on me at the same time! Do you remember that? I was just small. I called for help and finally, ten minutes later, you found me and got them off of me. Do you remember?"

"Irrelevant." William says, finally taking his other hand out of his pocket. That move really was supposed to finish her. He was planning on her falling unconscious due to it. Perhaps she was going to take more effort than planned. "You are stalling for time, trying to keep me occupied. That event has nothing to do with this situation."

"Oh yeah?" Ricca retorts, walking… well, kinda half-shuffling, half-limping towards him. "Well, if you didn't ever save me from those cows, I might have never learned that sometimes you have to trust other people around you to do things that you can't."

"Incorrect. You would have learned that moral with or without my aid." William says. "Now cease this and surrender yourself."

"I'm not giving up, William." Ricca says. "Not until I've seen the Place."

"You're a fool. There is no 'Place'." William says, to Ricca's surprise. "I was told, by the parents, that the Place is just a story passed down by the family that Anna belongs to. It does not truly exist."

"…I'll just have to see that for myself." Ricca replies stubbornly, getting closer and closer to William. "If I do, I'll gladly return home and continue my boring life."

"I was also told that there are dangerous beings where your destination leads. This is why I am here to return you all to your homes." William says.

Ricca grins slightly, stepping face-to-face with William. "I'm going, and you can't stop me."

"Untrue. Stopping you is my reason for being here." William replies, looking at her unflinchingly.

"William…" Ricca mumbles, putting her hand on one of his shoulders and her chin on the other, looking unhappy. "…What happened to you? You're so different, so empty, so much more powerful, with such cooler hair, but… you still have two weaknesses."

William, remaining as still as a stone carving, turns his eyes to Ricca's head. "You lie. There is no weakness to this power."

Ricca shakes her head slightly.

"Yes there is. One, you're still gullible, I've been talking to you for nearly two minutes now. And two…"

"There is no 'two'." William begins.

"Yes, there is…" Ricca says. Sighing, she pulls one of her legs back slightly and mumbles.

"Sorry, William…"

With that, she fully pulls her leg back and swings it forward again with as much force as she could. It was at the exact right trajectory and it hits its mark perfectly, making a crunching halt in the mid-region of William's blue jeans.

-

The Jacks, Kai, Cliff, Gray, Miro, and Matthew all flinch at that exact moment.

-

William, making the first emotion seen in a while from him, widens his eyes a noticeable amount and falls slowly to his knees, crossing his legs slightly, as Ricca stepped away from him.

"_That was… crude…_" William chokes out.

"But effective." Ricca adds with a near-evil laugh. She holds out one foot and presses the toe of her shoe against William's forehead, pushing him backward gently until he fell to his back, his eyes still open but looking to be unconscious. With another smirk, Ricca turns around and walks off, down the path toward the others.

-

As Nami and Kate continue to trade blows between one another, the three trapped in the net wait patiently for the battle to end.

"Who's winning?" Miro asks. The net had rotated so that Miro was facing the wrong direction.

"Kate-" Matthew begins.

"YES!" Miro cuts him off, a bit too soon.

"…is losing." Matthew finishes. "She's giving it her all, and it's tied up, but… your mom isn't. She's playing a more defensive game, dodging and making Kate look like an amateur… which she is."

"…Anna?" Miro says.

"Okay." Anna replies, already knowing what Miro was going to ask.

"OWW! What?! I was just making a point!" Matthew says, holding his freshly-kicked head. "You asked me who was winning, and I answered!"

"Yeah, but you put it into a bit too much detail." Miro says. "Next time, just state the facts, that's all that I care about right now. I'm too busy trying not to give myself a net-rope-wedgies to care about the small things."

"Look, I was just trying to be helpful, you don't have to bite my head off! Or… kick it off, as the case may be." Matthew replies.

"Give him a break, you'd be pretty tense, too, if that was me getting shown-up by someone about twenty years older than me!" Anna states.

"Says who?" Matthew asks.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Anna yells. "That you wouldn't even care?! I'm important, too, y'know!

"Yeah, but you put ME in this very net the day that you lured me and Miro to you and Ricca with chocolate! If you didn't bring this with you, we wouldn't be in it right now!" Matthew retorts.

"How was I supposed to know?! You're the one who fell for it, and you're the one who brought it with you all the way to the train tracks!"

"That's because you told me to!"

"Well, you didn't have to listen!"

"Yes, I did! You said 'Listen, Matthew, I want you to bring the chocolate with you in that net'!"

"You didn't have to listen to that, either!"

All this time, Matthew and Anna were struggling in the net, making Miro more and more uncomfortable. At one point, a rope from the net was pressing against his face, giving him good reason to protest.

"Hey! HEY! Watch the cuts! My face is still cut, remember?!" He demands, looking quite peeved himself.

Nami, overhearing this, instantly turns her attention to Miro.

"What did you say? You're cut, honey? Let me take a look…" She says, abruptly leaving the battle with Kate and walking to the net, turning it so that Miro was facing her.

"_Mom, it's alright, It's not bleeding…_" Miro says through clenched teeth, obviously embarrassed by this display of maternal care.

Nami ignores him and gets the rope out of his face, seeing the claw mark cut across it. She suddenly gasps lightly, and puts a hand to it. She then removes her hand from his cheek and puts it against her own, seeming to recognize the mark.

"No way..." She mumbles.

Kate hadn't just been standing there, however. She hadn't moved from where she was, but she had a plan. With a yell, she raises her giant blade and… stumbles as it falls backwards and sticks itself into the ground behind her. She now had the handle over her head, in a vertical slashing position. With all of her strength, she then swings it forward.

"WIND SCRAPE!" She yells, as the blade crashed to the ground.

Nothing.

"Kate…" Miro begins.

"What?" Kate asks.

"You watch WAY too much TV!"

"Well, you never know… It's a big sword, I have a bad attitude, all I'm missing is-"

"REALITY!" Miro finishes for her.

"…Well, I was gonna say 'the ears'." Kate says.

Nami turns to face her again, re-focusing on the fight. She lowers her hand from her face and grips her knife again.

"Don't think you can beat me with cheap tricks." Nami says.

"Or with anything, really…" Matthew adds. "You probably can't win at all…"

"WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?!" Kate yells, beating Miro to it.

"I'm just being factual…" Matthew says innocently. "I thought that showing your chances would make you try harder."

"I'LL SHOW YOU FACTUAL! THIS IS FRIGGIN FACTUAL!" Kate replies, swinging her sword and slicing a nearby tree right off of its base.

"Oh, she's vexed now…" Miro says.

"Vexed?" Anna repeats.

"Yeah. Angry, POed, ticked off, woke-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed-ish." Miro explains.

"Oh… What does she do when she's mad?"

"Well, it's more of a 'what do we do when she's mad' kind of thing."

"Okay. So… what do you do when she's mad?"

"Pray that whatever she breaks has insurance."

Kate suddenly lunges at Nami and slashes with her sword once, faster than most people could believe possible for a weapon of that size. Nami dodges it by ducking and then has to quickly dodge to the side to avoid a vertical swing. Both of these swings came uncomfortably close to shaving the nose cartilage from Miro's face, but he was too busy praying to notice.

Nami gets back on the offensive by intentionally hitting her knifes against Kate's weapon to get her to back off from the offense. Kate tries to thrust her blade at Nami, but that proves to be a mistake as Nami makes a close dodge, kicks the side of Kate's bade and causes her to whack herself with it. Kate staggers backward and recovers just in time to see Nami's fist make contact with her teeth. Kate then staggers again, nearly falls over, and remains still for a while. Nami walks back to the net, looking at Miro.

"Kate nearly had me there." She says. "But she just isn't good enough to defeat me."

"Uhh, Mom…" Miro begins, seeing Kate raise her head slowly and look at Nami with an extremely unfriendly disposition.

"Don't interrupt, Honey. Anyway, I suggest you call her off before I am forced to-"

"Mom, I think you should kno-"

Kate grips the handle of her blade tightly.

"I told you not to interrupt. Anyway, it's for your sake and safety as well as mine that you come home and-"

"Mom, Kate's not-"

Raising her sword up again, Kate holds it directly above her head.

"sigh Listen, you have to learn not to interrupt your parents when they're trying to warn you-"

"Mom, I'M TRYING TO WARN YOU!" Miro suddenly exclaims. It wasn't so much of a warning for Nami's sake, but more in hope of Nami moving and Kate directing her wrath away from where he and the others trapped in the net were.

Nami turns to see what it was, but a bit too late.

"EAT THIS, YOU OLD WASHBOARD!" Kate yells, swinging her sword downward in a sheer torrent of rage. This time something happened, as well, as a wide crease of powerful energy arced in their direction at a furious speed.

"Okay, how is this happening…?" Miro asks.

"It's possible that the attack is a huge outburst of energy, probably tens or dozens of Kilojoules worth, that were being charged and expended at such a massive rate due to the anger fueling Kate right now that they forced themselves out of her body, traveled through the metals of the sword, and were released into the environment by the swing." Matthew says, sounding quite calm for the situation.

"Oh… Do you think it's damaging?" Miro asks.

"Judging by the way it's tearing up the ground beneath it, yes." Matthew replies.

"Should we be screaming right now?" Anna asks.

"Many people in our situation would be… and we're no exception." Matthew says.

"Oh, alright." Anna says. They all clear their throats and take in a breath.

"**AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!**"

Nami, rather than scream, runs to one side and tries to dodge the attack, but the entire area is engulfed in light before the question of whether she made it or not could be answered.

A minute or so passed, and when the dust cleared, Kate stood there. There was a path of upturned dirt in front of her, which trailed forward like a dry riverbed for quite a distance.

Directly in the path of this, Miro, Matthew, and Anna hang there in the net, all looking to be charred to a pretty even black. Miro coughs out some soot and ash, Anna remains still and blinks once in a while, and Matthew remains limp, not having regained his consciousness just yet.

Nami was nowhere to be seen for a moment. Kate looked around for her, and suddenly spots her again, walking forward calmly from a dark batch of trees near the path of the attack. The left shoulder of her vest had been torn beyond patchwork rapair, and some hairs had been singed, but not in a majorly noticeable way. She approaches the slightly exhausted Kate and stops when she was directly in front of her.

"This is my favorite vest, Kate." She informs her, anger rising up in her. "I hold it very close to me, about as close as Jack. You damaged it. In fact, you wrecked it. And you called me a WASHBOARD?!" She suddenly strikes at Kate, which Kate blocks, both of which are done at an astounding speed. Nami seemed to come to some sort of realization at that moment.

"Ah, I get it. You're not going to give up, are you? You're not gonna lay down and let me win." She says, stepping back. "You, Kate, are going to keep on fighting until one of us is down. And you won't let it be you. That kind of willpower is dangerous to go against. You'll just keep on coming, and I won't be able to take you in without hurting you more than I feel is necessary. As Miro's girlfriend-"

"_Mmmmoooommmmmmm… _cough"

"-, you put me in a tough situation. I can't possibly continue this without the whole thing ending up on some daytime TV special about abusive mothers-in-law, so that leaves me with only one other choice."

She walks toward the net again, and brushes some soot off of her son's face.

"Be very, very careful, Miro." Nami warns him, looking at the cut on his face again. She turns and faces Kate once more, putting one knife away and reaching for something in her pocket.

"Oh, but… don't think this is over." She adds. "We'll be coming for you soon. All of us. And at that time, you will not be spared for bravery as you have been today. However, you do impress me, Kate. Goodbye."

And with that, she pulls out the Teleport Stone and vanishes, but not before throwing a knife in the direction of the net. As she is removed from sight, the small blade slices the supporting ropes that hung the net up on the tree off, and then sticks into the tree itself. Everyone in the net comes crashing down to the ground, the good news of this being that it woke Matthew up. Once they had untangled themselves and brushed all of the ash, soot, and burnt hair off of their person, they look at Kate.

"Did you catch any of that?" Miro asks immediately. "Mom had us right where she wanted us, but she let us go just like that. What the heck was she talking about?"

"I impressed her." Kate says. "She said a bunch of stuff about me not giving up and… stuff…" She yawns widely, lazily re-sheathing the huge blade back into the Swiss Army Knife handle.

"Works for me." Matthew says, still trying to get ash out of his ears.

"Yep." Anna says. "But… now what do we do? Should we wait for Ricca?"

Matthew sighs and shakes his head. "I wouldn't bother. All odds say that Ricca's doomed. We should just keep goi-"

"'Doomed'? Jee, glad to know that you had high hopes." Comes a voice from behind them. They turn around to see Ricca walking toward them, beat-up but not to the degree that they all expected.

"Ricca!" Anna says happily.

"You're back!" Kate says.

"But… You couldn't have won that…" Miro says in half-exasperation, half-awe, and half-total amazement (Miro's math is a bit shotty after the blast). "Where's William?"

Ricca smiles in a happy-but-sinister way. "Our friend William is suffering from a most unfortunate case of… scrambled eggs."

"_Ohhhhhhhh_…" Miro and Matthew groan, getting the message right away and cringing, instinctively crossing their legs a slight amount.

"Did you really have to do that?" Miro asks.

"Oh, right, because I had such a huge list of other options right at that moment." Ricca says, rolling her eyes. "The next time you duke it out with William, try to find a different way to bring him down, and I'll try to keep it in mind."

"Okay, okay, point taken." Miro says. "Now can we get going? We're nearly there and we still have to find Lumina!"

"Right, let's go." Matthew says. And with that, they continue on their way, hoping that they had finally gone through their last obstacles to find the Place.

(Ah, and now for what I promised. William's description, for those who would like to draw him. He has blue jeans, which was already mentioned in this chapter but I'll mention it again anyway, black sneakers, blue eyes, a white tee-shirt (but he could be wearing something a bit more elaborate since he has that new power), and slightly spiky, silver-white hair (but his original colour is brown). One more thing, his original personality was quite - as Midnight-Phoenix000, the creator of William says – sweet. However, his current personality is… close to non-existent. That's all that I've been told. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Remember to review!)


	21. Part 15, JOY!, Kinda, Mostly

Walking at a heightened pace, Miro and the group make their way through the last section of the forest. They weren't out yet, however, but the trees were thinning and more daylight was meeting them as they walked. The atmosphere was still quite creepy, however, that is until they reach a small clearing with a huge, flat mushroom -about 5 meters wide- in the middle. And there, lying on top of it, bathed in Autumn sunlight from the clearing was…

"Lumina!" Kate yells, her and Miro running forward until they notice that the platform was occupied by other things. The two shadowy things turn what is supposedly their faces directly toward Miro, the gleaming red spot on their foreheads… gleaming, as per usual. However, instead of striking at them, the things simply jump away into the trees, lost to sight in an instant.

"…Why is it that those things are always covered in shadow?" Miro asks. Kate shrugs, and hey continue to approach Lumina, who looked to be unconscious. They climb onto the large toadstool and walk to her slowly. The others walk a bit closer, but don't follow them onto the fungus.

"Lumina…?" Kate begins, looking down at her. "Wake up, please. I'm sure that you have a whole ton of info to add to all of this."

Miro crouches down and looks at her sleeping face, humming at what he could do.

"Umm… Lumina? Are you gonna wake up, or do we have to start kicking?" He asks.

With a light sigh and a sleepy grumble, Lumina fidgets for a moment before slowly opening her eyes. As she gets her focus back, she looks upward and sees Miro's face looking back at her. With a start, she wakes up fully.

"AHA! I've found you!" She says, suddenly getting up and throwing Miro over her shoulder, running off with him. However, before she could reach the end of the mushroom, Kate intervenes by putting herself in Lumina's path.

"You're not going anywhere with him." She says stubbornly.

"Outta the way, Kate, I'm tired of you pulling us apart!" Lumina says, narrowing her eyes.

"'Us'? You think that Miro likes you?" Kate says, coming dangerously close to bursting out laughing. "Listen… Lumina, I don't know where this is coming from, but Miro is not yours!"

"If I could add my view on the situation…" Miro begins, hanging worthlessly from Lumina's shoulder.

"NO!" Both of the girls yell at once, turning their gaze back to one another in an instant.

"So, you're not gonna get out of the way, huh?" Lumina asks, re-adjusting Miro and putting one hand into a fist. "Then I'll just have to get you out of my way personally! My knuckles are tougher than granite thanks to all of the piano I've been playing!"

"Yeah? Well I just beat Nami in a fight! I can take you-"

"Umm, Mom kinda let us go." Miro says meekly. "You didn't technically 'beat' her-"

"Miro, SHUT UP!" Kate warns him.

"Uhh, guys?" Mathew says, making the first sound from the background group. "Look, we just did a lot of fighting. Kate's beat-up, Ricca's beat-up, we don't wanna go through this again today. Why don't we just sit down and discuss this?"

"…Okay, fine." Lumina says, allowing Miro to fall off of her shoulder and sitting down patiently. Miro, after a slightly-cushioned landing thanks to the fungus, sits up and also waits. Kate, Anna, Ricca, and Matthew follow suit. Finally, Lumina speaks.

"First of all, who are you?" She asks, looking at the three from Mineral Town.

"They're old friends." Miro says. "I haven't seen them since we were really young. I barely recognized them."

"Now it's our turn, what are you doing here?" Kate asks.

"I… Well, I voulenteered to help out on the farm when Jack and Nami went away. A while after they left, Hugh came to see me and said that he'd take over my job so that I could go out and find you, Miro. I accepted, of course, and now I've finally done it! I found you in no time!"

"But… But you were being kidnapped…" Miro sputtered, just as confused as the rest of them were. "What about those shadowy things?"

"Shadowy things? Kidnapped?" Lumina repeats, now also confused. "I was never kidnapped, nothing like that happened to me!"

"How could you not remember?" Miro asks. "Just now, they were here…"

"…She was sleeping, of course!" Matthew says suddenly, everyone turning to look at him. "Those… things must have moved her while she was sleeping, and left her to go just before she woke up. That explains how she caught up so fast! The only question is…"

"Why?" Miro finishes for him. "Why in the world would those things bring you to me? It doesn't make any sense… Oh, and there's one more question." He turns to look at Lumina. "**How could you not notice that you woke up in a different place than you fell asleep!?**"

"Well… I…" Lumina began. "just thought that I had covered more ground than I first thought…"

"Is there anything that anyone else wants to ask?" Matthew says, looking around.

"Yes, I still have a question." Lumina says. "What are you all doing here? Where are you going?"

They all look at one another uncomfortably and hesitate to talk at first. Finally, Anna pipes up.

"Well, you're gonna laugh when you hear this, but we found a book about me and my cousin Miro's family history,"

"And so we're following a map traced out of the stretch marks on their back," Matthew continues.

"So that we can find our way through the countryside," Miro continues after Matthew.

"And find a special place that we call the… Place," Kate finishes.

"Which might or might not be real." Ricca says, adding her recently acquired knowledge to it.

They all look at her, this being a surprise to everyone.

"Whoa, whoa…" Matthew says. "I hadn't heard that part before. Where'd you get that from?"

"William told me." Ricca says, sighing.

"William? Who's that?" Lumina asks, looking around at them.

"He is…" Matthew begins, trying to find the right words. "…an enemy. One of the biggest ones we have. He's working for all of the parents that are trying to get us back, and he's easily tough enough to do it by himself. Although… he won't be a huge problem for the next little while."

"He's not just an enemy…" Ricca begins, looking at the ground. "He's also an old friend of ours. It was always Anna, Matthew, me, and him, ever since we were little. But something's happened. We're not sure what, but he's lost his personality and gained unnatural strength… Also, he told me earlier that the parents told him that there is no such thing as the Place, and that there are dangerous things living where we are going. I don't know if it's true, I don't really care, I just…

I think… I hope that we can bring him back to normal somehow."

"All of this sensitive talk coming from the one who gave him a shot in the bolts?!" Miro says, giving her a look.

"Don't give me that! I had no other choice, and I apologized in advance!" Ricca snaps back.

"She what?" Lumina says, confused.

"Ricca sacrificed herself for the group, to fend off William." Matthew explains. "It was a desperate time so she took desperate measures…"

"Oh…" Lumina says, nodding in understanding.

"Anyway, if you can think of any more questions, we can talk while we're walking. The map says that we're nearly there!" Miro says, getting up. "So Lumina, are you coming with us, or going against us?"

Lumina also stands up, along with the rest of them. She thinks for a moment about this, and comes to a conclusion.

"…I'm with you. Consider me the newest good guy!"

-

At around that time, the group of parents continue to make their way down the train tracks. At this point, most of them wished that they had hitched a train as well. The tracks seemed to go on and on. Suddenly, a large poof of smoke appears in front of them, and Nami appears.

Jack is the first to speak, an obvious choice since this was his wife poofing out of nowhere.

"Hey, Nami, how'd it g- YOUR VEST!" He yells in terror, running over to her immediately and making vain attempts to tend to Nami's beloved vest. Nami seems to ignore Jack for a moment, but then pushes him away slowly. Jack looks at her in disbelief.

"It's okay, Jack." She says. "I couldn't have chosen a more fitting end to this old thing. Kate struck it down with a single, huge blow. She's definitely worthy of being in the family."

"Nami, we- we can still fix it!" Jack stammers. "We can find a new shoulder, patch it on, it can be as good as-"

"No, Jack, I think I'll keep it like this for a while." Nami interrupts him. "I kinda like it, it gives me more freedom in the left shoulder. And I feel like I'm younger, wearing something that has less fabric than most people would think appropriate."

"Umm… Well, okay." Jack says. "But what about Miro, and Kate and the rest of them?"

"I let them go." Nami replies. "They deserve the break. Besides, they seem pretty sure of themselves that there's something to find out there."

"…So what do we do?" Kai asks from the back of the group.

"We let them find it, and then drag them back once their curiosity's been fed." Nami explains.

"The only problem is, how do we catch up with them?" Mary chimes in. "We're consistently failing to make progress by sending people one at a time, so we'll have to use our superior numbers to our advantage.

"What about our intellectual edge?" The Jack from Mineral Town asks. Ann looks at him for a moment.

"'Our'?" She asks. "Jack, you don't have the intellectual edge over your own shadow!"

"They should explain the rules of Shadow Boxing better!" He says in some frustration. "How was I supposed to know that you're not supposed to actually punch the wall?!"

"…That's so pathetic, I'm not even going to laugh." Mary says, shaking her head in shame.

"To catch up with them, we need only one thing." Nami says, getting back on subject. She holds out the Teleport Stone.

"NO WAY!" Gray suddenly yells, breaking out of his body cast and running right up to Nami.

"Wow. Gray never yells. Or runs." Kai says, having recovered enough to no longer need to be in Nami's bag.

"What's the problem?" Nami asks, looking at Gray.

"The stone is damaged." Gray says, quickly returning to his old self. "It's far too much of a risk to try long-distance traveling with the entire group."

"Don't worry. I've considered this, and I know exactly what to do." Nami says. She holds the stone close to her face and suddenly spits on it. She then rubs the Stone with her baggy pant leg and holds it out again.

"Of course… The maternal Magic Spit! The spit that heals all wounds!" Cliff says from inside the body cast, watching from an opening in the plaster and bandages.

"Look, maybe that works on a child's boo-boo, but I'm not about to believe that you can repair a rare, powerful, magical artifact with saliva!" Gray says disbelievingly.

Nami holds out the Stone a moment later. To Gray's shock, the cracks and small fissures on it were completely gone. Nami smirks triumphantly and holds it out.

"Now, hold on." She says. "I'm gonna use every last bit of juice that this thing has left in it."

"A long-distance teleport with so many people…" Gray begins, slightly nervous. "This may be risky, but… okay."

The group closes in around her, and Nami shuts her eyes. The stone begins to shine brighter and brighter, and they all suddenly vanish in a large puff of smoke.

An instant later, they appear out of nowhere in the middle of a dismal, creepy surrounding, with old, crooked trees overhanging and blocking out quite a lot of sunlight.

"That wasn't too bad…" Nami says, opening her eyes and looking around. She realises where she had ended up quite quickly.

"Wh… Where are we?" Jack asks, looking around nervously.

"We're in the Forest of… umm… the bad one, the one with the long name." The other Jack says, lifting his cap to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He remembered this place from when he went on this very 'detour' long ago…

"It sure is creepy…" Kai says, trying to act calm and make his paranoid-glancing-around look like casual-scenery-viewing.

"Let's go." Nami says, beginning to walk and motioning for the others to follow. Suddenly, they hear the sound of something huge coming from behind them. Turning around slowly, they all look upward to see the same massive, living tree that Miro's group retreated from earlier.

"Oh, crap…" Mary and Gray mutter in unison (now we know where Matthew got it from).

"…Anybody have a plan?" Cliff asks, lying on the ground, covered in his plaster shell. "Running's not exactly an option for me…"

"Yep, I've got a plan." Ann says, beginning to approach the thing.

"Wait, no!" The Jack-who-is-married-to-Ann says, running in front of her. "I'm not gonna risk you getting hurt, I'll do it!"

"I'll help!" The other Jack says, running to his side. "You're my cousin, after all."

Pulling out a sickle and an axe, the two Jacks make a valiant charge at the gigantic tree. With a surge of valor and determination, they raise their weapons and-

CRUNCH!

…are crushed underfoot by their opponent.

"Ooh, they'll need an Advil…" Nami says, cringing slightly.

"Can I please do what I had planned now?" Ann asks.

"_Yeeessss…_" The two Jacks say, their voices obviously muffled by the giant, softwood appendage on top of them.

"Good." Ann says, walking over to Cliff's body cast. "Now hold still."

"I don't have much choice in the matter…" Cliff says. "But, uhh, why?"

"Let me put it this way, I was Discus Champion back in Highschool." Ann says. The visible portion of Cliff's eye seemed to widen considerably.

With less effort than people would think it would take, Ann lifts Cliff up and hauls him onto her shoulder. Despite Cliff's yells of protest, Ann then holds him out and begins swinging him around and around. She built up momentum until she finally released him, sending him spinning toward the tree. Connecting squarely on the tree's forehead, Cliff riccouchets off and sends it toppling backwards.

"We're not done yet." Ann says. "Guys, think of all of the thinks you have ever wanted to carve, build, or burn. 'Cause there's aaaaall of the material you'll ever need."

Every single guy in that group was suddenly hit with creative inspiration. Every handyman plan that they could never finish due to lack of lumber and/or Gotz yelling at them for stealing his tools suddenly came to mind, and they charged toward the tree gleefully to carry out their projects. Even Cliff, who had just as many desperate plans as everyone else, was so enthused with the opportunity that he forced his own bones to heal and broke out of the cast.

A few moments later, the entirety of the tree had been reduced to poorly-made decks, deck chairs, lawn ornaments, life size animal carvings, toys and any number of other 'creative' projects that the guys could think of. Nami looked rather impressed, and looked over to Ann.

"You managed to turn the instinctive stupidness of our husbands into an effective weapon… Maybe you actually can compare to me…" She says.

"I can out-cook you, at any rate." Ann says, turning away and beginning to walk. She speaks behind her back.

"Come on, boys, let's get out of here before anything else decides to show up."

A short while later, they begin to hear a soft sound. Almost like sniffling. Soon after they realize that it really is sniffling. As they walk around a large tree, an obscurely-placed toll booth is seen. The sound seemed to come from there.

"Should we check to see what it is?" Cliff whispers. The others nod and slowly make their way toward it. Once they had reached it, all of them stick their heads in the opened window and look down to see a figure crouched down in the corner, sniffling and crying.

"Harris?" Popuri says, not quite sure if what she saw was real.

"What in the world are you doing here?" Gray asks.

Stifling his crying for a moment, Harris turns to look at them.

"I was just asking for a… for a toll, but then he just, he…" He says incoherently in between sniffs.

"What? Who did what?" Nami asks.

"He… he POKED ME IN THE EYE!" Harris says, moving closer to them and showing his slightly-bloodshot eye.

"Ooooookay…" Cliff says, looking as confused and 'yeesh, this guy is pathetic' as everyone else. "Who was it?"

"You… your son!" Harris yells. "That evil son of yours, didn't pay his toll AND POKED ME!"

"You're beginning to disturb me, Harris." Mary says. "If it makes you feel better, I'm sure we can cover the price. We'll have to pay to get through, anyway."

"Well, okay…" Harris says. "Since he went through without paying, he's charged double, so all of your tolls together will be… 60,000g."

Everyone, minus Nami, widens their eyes just as much as Miro's group did when they heard this. Nami looks over to the guys.

"Well, you heard him. Pay up."

"**WHAT?**" The guys yell, looking at Nami in bewilderment.

"Quit whining, you have money on you." Nami says. "I'm sure you can afford it."

"B-but…" They stammer.

"We have other things in mind to spend our money on…" Kai says.

"Yeah…" The others chorus.

"For what?" The girls all ask.

"…Toys." Kai says.

"Presents…" Cliff adds.

"For you." The Jacks both say.

Gray simply nods, not wanting to agree to such a gigantic lie out loud.

"Yeah, right." Nami says. "Just split it between you. You can afford it."

Reluctantly, hesitantly, and very unhappily, the guys fork over 12,000g each. Tears were visible in their eyes as they parted from so much hard-earned money at once.

Harris counts the money quickly and raises the striped bar once he saw that it was enough. The group passes through, waving Harris goodbye and stewing over the price of government services nowadays.

-

"So you chopped up both of the trees?" Lumina asks, listening to Miro telling her what had happened so far.

"Well, Matthew helped, and Anna provided us with the chainsaws." Miro corrects her. Anna smiles proudly at this.

They had nearly reached the end of the Forest. The trees had thinned a considerable amount, and sunlight was drenching their faces nearly constantly as they walked. Lumina seemed very interested in hearing about what had happened to them during their travels, and also quite interested in just hearing Miro talk to her.

"And then, once we finished them off, a reeeeally huge one showed up." Miro says. "I'm talking massive, kinda like Van, only with a less hollow head."

Lumina laughs at this joke with a bit too much enthusiasm, the sound of this causing Kate's blood pressure to shoot up. She balls her fist tightly and grits her teeth, attempting to ignore everything happening around her.

"So, of course, we had to run off." Miro continues. He seemed completely oblivious that all of this cheerful talk with Lumina was bringing Kate dangerously close to having a conniption. Perhaps this was Miro's revenge for Kate going out of her way to annoy him all of these years.

"And you got away all right?" Lumina asks.

"Yep." Miro replies. "It was too big to move fast, so we just bolted out of there. And then there was this whole fiasco with Harris and a toll both that ended with the entire group of us dressing in Mexican outfits to sneak by. Ugh, if I never wear tight leather pants again…"

"Tight leather pants?" Lumina asks, sounding even more interested than before.

A vein in Kate's forehead was threatening to rupture big-time at this point.

"_She's in her twenties, why can't she give up already?_" Kate mumbles venomously to herself.

"Oh, and then Matthew and his dad had this fight, and Matthew won. He got hurt a bit, though." Miro continues.

"I bandaged it up, don't worry." Matthew adds in, pointing to his shoulder.

"Oh. Miro, did you get hurt at all?" Lumina asks.

"Not really. Just this little thing I got when we ran into those shadow-things that were carrying you off." Miro says, pointing to the cuts across his cheek.

"Oh, is it infected?!" Lumina says, alarmed. "Here, let me see! Let me kiss it better!"

Kate put herself in between Miro and Lumina so quickly, her shadow needed a moment to catch up.

"That WON'T be necessary." She says spitefully. "Miro's got me to go to if he's ever beat up. And don't worry, I'm plenty for him."

Lumina widens her eyes a bit, and then looks away sadly.

"Eeeee… Ouch." Matthew says, looking over to Ricca. "Congratulations, you're no longer the official 'third wheel' of the group."

Ricca glares at him.

"But you could be the official 'broken wheel' if you want." She replies threateningly.

"Err, right…" Matthew says, shutting up.

A few moments later, they finally exit the forest completely, the musty air finally gone. They're back in a plains-like area, flecked with occasional trees and some hills. After walking for a few more minutes, they walk up and down a hill, and come upon an amazing sight.

"No way…" Matthew says.

"Unbelievable…" Ricca says.

"How could…" Anna begins.

"Is this…" Kate starts to say.

"I think it is…" Miro says in amazement.

"Wow…" Lumina says.

Before them, bathed in the warm sunlight, making everything around it seem inferior in beauty, and marked right in the area of the map where the Place was said to be, was…

"A… A MALL…" They all breathe out in amazement, their eyes widened and their limbs trembling in anticipation.

Indeed, a huge mall stood in front of them. Any teenager's dream come true, the ultimate place of sanctuary and joy, now in their grasp after so many long days of traveling.

"It's so _beautiful…_" Matthew says, coming close to crying. "B-but how? How is it here? There's no town, there's no people, there's nothing but this…"

"Nothing but this gigantic place of happiness." Miro finishes for him. "…Well, what're we waiting for? ONWARD!"

And with a shout, they all begin scampering gleefully to their final objective, the long-awaited Place.

-

Back in the dark confines of the evil Forest, a certain person begins to stirr from his temporary coma. A hand begins to twitch, and then clenches into the ground, balling into a fist and crushing a rock it had grabbed into dust. Slowly, William's cold eyes begin to open again. He slowly brings himself to his feet, speaking to himself in the meantime.

"It will take more… than a mortal blow… in a very mortal place… to stop me." He says quietly, fully standing up. He then looks around him.

"I must know… whether or not there is a Place." He says, almost as though he were talking to someone. He waits a moment before speaking again, replying to some invisible voice.

"…There must be a reason why you can't tell me."

He waits again.

"…I understand."

Without another word, he turns forward and walks off… walking a bit funny, mind you, but still walking.


	22. Part 16, Oooooh, Foreshadowing

(This is going to be my Christmas present to you, the viewers. Sure, it didn't actually cost me money, but it's the best I have to offer. Enjoy!

Oh, and Merry Christmas, all'a ya!)

It took all of five seconds for Miro's group to reach the Mall, all of them tearing through the front doors and nearly knocking them off of their hinges. Once they were through, they found themselves in the central area of a gigantic, multi-store piece of heaven. Once they were done gawking in silent amazement, they notice something. The building, although being in perfect Mall condition, was completely abandoned.

"Wow… Where is everybody?" Anna asks, looking around.

"There's no one here." Matthew says. "I suppose it was built here and then abandoned, but they never cut the electricity or heating or anything."

"Wow, that's amazingly lucky for us." Miro says. He pauses a moment to yawn. "…Hey, y'know, it's been a long day. Let's find a place to pack in before we start exploring."

"Okay. That attack I did really took a lot out of me…" Kate says. Ricca and the others nod at this.

"Well, there are quite a few ways we can go…" Ricca says, looking around. "Let's split up and try to find a mattress shop or something."

"Right." Anna says. "You, Lumina, Miro, and Kate go one way, Matthew and me will go the other."

"That's not a very balanced division-" Matthew begins, but he is cut off by a just-go-along-with-it look from Anna. "O-Oooooh… Yes, yes, that seems about right."

"…Whatever." Ricca says. "Okay, you go down the left hall, we'll go down the right, and we'll all check out the center and the second floor later. C'mon, I'm sleepy too, and I'll need my energy for powershopping."

"Can it really be called 'shopping'?" Miro asks. "I mean, it's not like anyone's here to accept our money. It's more like looting."

"Whatever, it's abandoned so nobody's gonna miss it." Ricca says, the groups splitting off and going down their assigned ways.

After searching for a few minutes, Miro's side of the group comes across a discount bed store. They enter it, selecting one of the many, many beds and lying down on them. Ricca finds a bed a long distance from the others. Lumina perches herself in a bed right next to Miro's. Kate sees this and takes quick action, finding a bed equally as close to Miro's and moving to the side of it nearest Miro. Miro doesn't notice and of this due to having his eyes shut and lying down on his back, hands behind his head. Lumina takes counter-action and gets up, pushing her bed even closer. Kate does the same, and so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, Anna and Matthew continue to search on their side. Matthew finds a plain, unlabeled door among the various stores and inspects it. He tries to turn the doorknob, but it's locked. Crouching down, he takes a paper clip out of his pocket and straightens it, sticking it into the door's lock. As he begins toying with the lock, Anna bends down and stares eye-level at Matthew, hardly blinking and not saying a word. Also, her face was uncomfortably close.

After a moment, Matthew notices this and looks back at her.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"Looking at you." Anna replies, plain-as-day.

"…May I ask why?" Matthew asks hesitantly.

"No reason." Anna replies, continuing to stare.

"Umm… Well, okay." Matthew says, timidly returning to his work. Anna waits a moment before speaking.

"Can I look a bit closer?"

"Uhh… w-why?"

"No reason."

"…Sure."

Anna takes a small step closer to Matthew. He could feel her quiet breath on his face now, and it was extremely distracting. Not to mention, he was beginning to lose interest in picking the lock very fast. Another moment passes before Anna speaks again.

"Is this too close?"

"…Well, uh… no, not at all." Matthew says, shaking his head slightly.

"Okay. Then can I look a bit closer?"

Beads of sweat were beginning to develop under Matthew's hat. He wasn't stupid, he had read his share of books. He also knew Anna. She had a way of using simple questions and acting so innocent to get people to sway in her favor. However, she was like her backpack: pretty-looking but with some very surprising things inside. Matthew swallows so hard it was as though he were trying to consume a Jawbreaker whole, before replying.

"But… if you get any closer we'd be…" He begins.

"I know." Anna replies, smiling a bit.

"Well… Err… I… Umm… I guess you cou-"

But before he could finish the word, he was interrupted by the distinctive 'click' of the door unlocking. Surprised, Matthew re-directs his attention to it and pulls the bent paper clip out. Turning the door handle, Matthew slowly opens it.

"Oh, it's just… a… closet." Matthew says, his throat constricting at the end of the sentence. Before he knew what happened, he was violently pushed inside, Anna following and quickly shutting the door behind them.

-

"It's getting close to evening." Mary says, looking up.

"How can you tell?" Kai asks. "It's all dark here, I can barely see sunlight anyway."

"Well, I'm getting that urge to call my kid up for bed." Mary explains. "That's how I know it's around evening."

"Interesting… not to mention creepy." Cliff adds. "So, should we rest for the night?"

"Yes, that would be a good idea." Mary says. "But… we'll need someone to keep watch."

"Who votes for the Edison twins over there?" Nami asks, pointing to the two Jacks. Everyone puts their hand up, minus the victims, of course.

The Jacks sigh, watching as everyone got their bedthings ready and, one at a time, fell asleep. To pass the time, they began to talk.

"So… How's it been in Minnow-roll Town?" Jack asks.

"Mineral Town." Jack corrects him. "And… Well, it's been pretty good. I have a lovely wife and a beautiful daughter. Can't complain, really."

"Aren't you a bit nervous about her being out there, without supervision?" Jack asks. Jack simply shakes his head.

"No, not really. I'm sure she can take care of herself." He says.

"That's not really what I mean…" Jack states. "I just thought that, since she's all alone, with a bunch of other teenagers, with no supervision, and no adults giving her advice on what to do and what not to do, that you might be a bit… edgy."

"What, for Anna?" Jack says, laughing it off. "Don't worry, I'm sure that Anna will be responsible. I even bet that right now, at this very moment, she is having a nice, respectful, responsible sleep, alone… and not in a broom closet with Matthew."

"…What?"

"I dunno, it just came to mind all of a sudden."

"Oh… Anyway," Jack continues. "I wish I could say the same about Miro. He's a very inward kind of guy. Y'know, he keeps to himself. He's never been out in the wilderness for such a long time in his entire life… What if it affects him?"

"Like, mentally?"

"Yeah… Like what if he suddenly starts listening to… Folk Music?"

They both shudder.

"Well, you'll have to do the only thing merciful." Jack says. "Shoot him."

"I suppose, if that's how it has to be…" Jack mumbles. "…Hey, wait a minute… I like Folk."

"Come to think of it, so do I…" Jack realises.

"So… Anyway, I've always been wondering something." Jack says, changing the subject.

"What's that?" Jack replies.

"How do you do that with your hair?" Jack says, pointing to the inproportionately huge tuft of hair sticking out from under Jack's hat.

"Oh, that. Well…" He begins. "To be honest, I have no clue. I'm too scared to take my hat off and find out…"

"It looks like you have a family of squirrels stuck in your head." Jack points out.

"Say, why don't we take turns keeping guard?" Jack asks.

"Okay… Do you want to take the first shift?"

"Naah, you can. How about… you go from now until the sun comes up, and I'll take the rest of the night?"

Jack considers this for a moment. It seemed fair enough. It wasn't like his blue-hatted cousin would try to sucker him into staying up the WHOLE night, right? Just until the sun comes up…

"Okay. Sounds good. You'd better go rest up for your shift." Jack says. Jack nods to Jack's statement, and lies out on his sleeping mat soon after.

That morning…

A completely uneventful night had finally passed, and our white-button-up-shirt-with-blue-pants-held-up-by-ugly-suspenders-wearing night watcher was crouched down next to Nami, staring attentively at her as she slept. He had hardly blinked the entire time he was watching over the others, and his baggy and bloodshot eyes showed it. Surprisingly, the first person to wake up was his cousin, the blue-hatted Jack. He stretches, yawns, and looks over to his non-behatted relative in confusion.

"…What are you doing?" He asks.

"If Nami wants me to keep watch, I'll keep watch." Jack says. This didn't exactly make much sense, but lack of sleep tends to do that to people.

"And… you're gonna watch over only her?" Jack asks, tilting his head in confusion.

"Wrong. I'm just keeping extra-special watch over her." Jack corrects him, a hint of sleep-deprived craziness in his voice. "Every three minutes and thirty-seven seconds, I will make a sweeping glance of the entire area to make sure that everyone else is okay. In fact, if you were to just wait for eleven more seconds…"

The other Jack complies and waits for eleven seconds. Just like Jack told Jack, Jack takes his eyes from Nami and looks to the left, to the right, and then back to Nami.

"Well… whatever works for you." Jack says, shrugging. "I think it's close enough to morning. Let's wake everybody up."

"Okay. First priority is first…" Jack says in agreement. He sticks a finger out and gives Nami a poke.

"Nami, wake up." He says. Nami grumbles and shifts around, but doesn't speak of open her eyes.

"Nami, wake up." He repeats, a bit louder. Nami's eyes tighten and she shifts over to her side, but once again ignores Jack in all other respects. Finding little alternative, Jack clears his throat.

"Hey Nami… you're DROOLING!" He exclaims, the last word in that scentence echoing in the silent woods for some time before fading away. Jack smiled proudly after this.

Nami, however, does not open her eyes. Instead, she speaks.

"I do not… drool…" She says.

"Yes you do. You drool. You're drooling right now. Open your eyes so you can see that you're drooling." Jack says quite rapidly.

"Just shut up…" She replies.

"I can't, you have to wake up." Jack says. "You have to wake up, the rest of the people have to wake up, but you especially because you have to wipe the drool off of your face before anybody else noti-."

Before Jack could even finish his word, Nami's left knuckles clash into Jack's skull, making the second sound that echoed throughout the forest that morning. Jack was on the ground a moment later, his eyes swirling around in his head.

"Hey Jack, you're bruising." Nami says mockingly.

-

Miro's eyes slowly open after having an amazingly good sleep. He hadn't slept in a real bed, with real springs, for a time period much too distant for him.

"Ahh… That was the comfiest sleep I've had in a loooong while." He says. He makes an attempt to stretch out his arms, but they were wedged in something. He looks to his left and right, and realises that they were wedged under Lumina and Kate. Both of their beds were directly beside his, with no space between them, and the same went for the people themselves. Miro is stunned for a moment, and mutters something along the lines of "…Make that the comfiest in my life…"

After locking this memory in the deep recesses of his mind for later use, Miro begins struggling to escape. It was no use, though. They had him pinned too well. Instead, he looks over to the bed where Ricca was supposedly sleeping and calls out to her in a tone that he hoped was loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough to wake the others.

"Ricca… _RICCA…_" He whispers as loudly as possible. A figure suddenly comes up opposite the direction he was facing, and taps him on the head. Miro turns around in surprise.

"Whoa! Okay, there you are…" He says, noticing the figure as Ricca. "I'm glad you're awake. Can you, uhh, help me? I'm… kinda stuck."

"Of course." Ricca replies. "And as a bonus, I won't even ask how you got yourself in this."

"You know as much as I do, I just woke up and they were here." Miro explains. "Don't ask me."

"I won't, that's what I said." Ricca says.

"Oh yeah…" Miro remembers. "Well, can you hurry please?"

"My, somebody's got no patience." Ricca says, looking at him. But before she can give him a hand, a sudden tremor shakes the ground and loosens Miro up enough for him to crawl free. The tremor causes Ricca to stumble, but she regains herself. After it passed, Miro climbed off of the bed and stood up.

"I wonder what that was…?"

-

"Come out…" Our taciturn anti-hero William says, his arms spread and looking to be focused on listening for something. His hands clench and his body tenses, as he creates another shockwave along the ground. He looked to be trying to scare something out, like how someone would shake a tree to see birds fly from it, but on a much larger scale. As the second tremor subsides, he pauses for a moment, and opens his eyes.

"I sense it…" He says to himself. "…Two things. This should not be… And they are approaching."

He waits a moment longer, as the things that he sensed got closer and closer to him. His right hand began to glow a bluish color. This and the tremors that he created seem to be proof that William has more tricks up his sleeve that he had shown Ricca. He waits silently, and backs up until his back was pressed against a large tree. A completely soundless moment passes, and then an amazingly fast thing rushes toward William and makes a slashing movement at him. William was out of the way before it could connect, however, and the thing's claw did nothing but leave impressively deep marks on the tree. William was behind it at this point, about five meters away, and he held his glowing arm out at it. A spike of ice shoots from it and narrowly misses the creature, which dodges it, and the ice sticks into the poor tree instead.

The thing stops and turns to face William. It was bathed in shadow and had a red, glowing spot on its forehead. The second of these that William sensed was standing on another tree, watching.

William held his hand out again, a green light surrounding it this time. A tangle of small roots shoot from the ground and wrap around his arm, shaping themselves into a gauntlet with a long blade coming from the front. The roots connected to the ground snap off so that it is not anchored down. It looked surprisingly strong, as the roots clung together very tightly. William then uses his power to light the blade on fire. For some reason, the roots did not burn away.

He wastes no time in rushing at the creature, swinging his weapon at it. It dodges, the flaming streak of the blade slicing through and chopping down the defenseless, abused, beat-up tree. It comes crashing to the ground, but is ignored by the combatants. The thing catches William's next blow by grabbing the non-flaming part of the gauntlet, and draws its other hand back, ready to slice into William. Before it can do so, however, William makes a quick move by snapping off the gauntlet, spinning behind the thing, and giving it a quick elbow to the back. It falls supposedly to its knees, but as William turned to give it the finishing blow, the second shadow-creature interferes by jumping down, putting itself in front of him, and spraying him in the eyes with some sort of liquid. William is taken off-guard by this, and steps back while trying to wipe the stinging substance off of his eyes. By the time he finishes, he opens his eyes only to find that the things were gone, without a trace. Not a sound could be heard in the forests again.

"They've escaped…" He says to himself. After a moment, he decides to continue walking. He remains silent, his many, mysterious thoughts swimming in his bleach-haired skull.

-

"Whoa! What do you think that was?" Kai says, him and the rest of the group feeling the effects of the tremors. They were all awake and packed-up at this point, and were in the middle of walking when the quakes hit them. The Jacks, Cliff, and Popuri were knocked off of their feet, but no one was hurt.

"I'm not sure…" Ann says. "Are there usually earthquakes around here?"

"This region, no." Gray replies. "It didn't feel natural, it should've lasted longer. And there were two of them."

"It might have been William." Elli says. "It's the only thing I can think of…"

"I didn't know he could do that…" Cliff says, him and the rest of the people who were knocked over getting back on their feet. "I mean, why would he need it?"

"Need it?" The non-hatted Jack asks. "You mean he wasn't just born like that?"

"Of course not." Elli replies. "And it might not have been him who did that. Maybe it was just a freak earthquake… or something else in this forest."

"It doesn't really matter." Nami says, beginning to walk again. "William's on our side, so we really don't have to worry about it. Now let's get moving, we're wasting time."

-

"So… What should we do first?" Miro asks. They had stopped wondering about the source of the quake, since there were much more important things to deal with. Only he and Ricca were awake in the room, since they decided not to disturb Kate and Lumina.

"You can go looking for Anna and Matthew, I will go and see if there is anything interesting around here." Ricca says.

"…I was looking for suggestions, not orders." Miro says, beginning to walk. "But I guess I'll go looking for those two anyway, by my own decision."

"Are you sure it was your own decision, or are you just doing it because I told you to?" Ricca asks.

"No, I don't need a boss to tell me what to do." Miro replies. "This is ME making MY OWN decision, it's just a coincidence that you said for me to do what I was going to do in the first place."

"While you're out there, go look for a gift shop and find some Mood Rings."

"Okay… _I was going to do that anyway_!"

After a minute or so of walking, Miro was going down the left wing, where Matthew and Anna had gone. Miro wondered where they must've gone to sleep since it was his group that found the bed shop. The place was silent, minus the vents, but they hardly made any noise at all. He walks for a while longer, until he hears a faint noise coming from a plain-looking door. Walking toward it cautiously, Miro turns the handle and slowly opens it. Inside was Matthew, looking absolutely starstruck and dazed. He was sitting in a corner, looking up, swaying his head left to right, and humming. That was the noise that Miro heard.

"…Matthew?" Miro says, confused. "Are… you okay?"

Matthew gets up and stumbles out the door dreamily, Miro getting out of the way.

"How was your sleep last night?" Miro asks.

"Sleep…?" Matthew replies, looking at Miro strangely. "…OH, sleep! Yes, my good sleep was… was good sleep my… good mine sleep was mine, good sleep my sleep in my was sleep good mine… sleep."

"Matthew, put your words together to form a sentence."

"Okay…" Matthew says, saying the following words very deliberately as he tried to form them into a real sentence. "MY. SLEEP. GOOD. WAS."

"…Close enough."

"Alright…" Matthew says, once again going into a dreamlike state.

"Matthew, what the heck happened to you?" Miro asks, losing his patience and shaking Matthew back and forth violently. Once Miro lets go, Matthew plops down to a sitting position and looks at him.

"Oh… Hello, Miro." He says, sounding happy and relaxed.

"Matthew, you're acting really weird." Miro says. "What happened?"

"Oh… Miro, I have become claustrophillic." Matthew explains.

"Claustro…phillic?" Miro repeats, looking at him strangely. "Like, not claustrophobic?"

"Yes."

"So you mean 'phillic', as in you like it, as in opposite of phobic." Miro continues, still not getting it.

"Yep…"

"And 'claustro', as in closed-up spaces?"

"Mm-hmm…"

"So, you now like closed-up spaces?"

"Uh-huh…"

"…May I ask why?"

"No."

"Okay. By the way, there's a long, red-with-pink-highlights hair on your face."

"…I'll get that later."

"Okay… Say, where's Anna?" Miro asks, suddenly noticing her absence. Matthew looks around.

"I… don't know. She must've left." Matthew says, getting up. "Let's go looking for her."

"Yep, and we also need to find some Mood Rings." Miro adds. They both begin to walk farther down the left wing.

"Why?" Matthew asks.

"Because Ricca wants some." Miro says. "Err… But, not that I'm following her orders or anything. I was going to go looking for them anyway."

"Why would the first thing on your 'to do' list be looking around for something as obscure as Mood Rings?" Matthew asks.

"I… I don't know…" Miro admits.

"Ricca's good with mind games, Miro." Matthew warns. "She can sway your thought pattern so easily, you can't even notice it."

"I told you, I'm doing this without even taking what she said into consideration." Miro says stubbornly. "She isn't even in my brain right now."

"She has to be."

"Why's that?"

"Well, you're talking about her. So, in theory, in order to talk about her, you must think about what you're going to say. Therefore, for the duration of your speaking, you have to be thinking about her."

"Okay, fine, _TECHNICALLY_ I'm thinking about her, herself, but I'm not considering what she said." Miro says.

"…Okay, that works." Matthew says, shrugging. There was a clothing shop ahead of them, which Matthew pointed out. It was a good place to start looking for Anna.

As they entered, they saw a forest of clothing racks and discount shelves, filled with bright pants and shirts and toe socks and SHOES, with little sparkly things and shiny things and many, many other accessories that simply terrified Miro and Matthew. They had spent their lives wearing basically the same clothing every day without much need to change it. Cringing at the bright colors and overall cleanliness of this department, they begin to stroll down an aisle, searching around.

After a few moments, Miro and Matthew stumble across a couple of booth-like things that ran alongside the wall.

"What do you think these are?" Miro asks.

"They're probably change rooms." Matthew says. "So that people could try their clothes on before buying them."

Just then, Anna comes out of one of them, wearing a pair of bellbottoms which were tinted pink at the ankles and shifted to regular blue from there up, white high-sandals which made her slightly taller than the other two, and a green tee-shirt sporting the infamous mascot Happy Bunny, looking at them with its beady little eyes with the text 'You're icky.' underneath it.

"Oh, hey!" She says, looking delighted to see the others there. She turns around so that they could see the entirety of her outfit. "What do you think? Does it suit me?"

"Err… yeah, I guess…" Matthew says.

"You kidding me? You could win a pageant in that outfit!" Miro exclaims.

"Really?" Anna says. "Aww, thanks!"

"Sure." Miro says. "I mean, you're a shoein for Miss Mordor!"

He laughs at this for a while, but it is cut off by a sharp elbow in the jaw, courtesy of Anna. Matthew was just glad that he could contain his laughter about Miro's joke to a certain degree. However, he was finding it difficult now.

"OWW!" Miro says, holding his face. "You made me bite my tongue! That really, really smarts, y'know!"

"Maybe you should have bit your tongue figuratively so that Anna wouldn't have to make you do it literally." Matthew points out.

"…And you know what? That's not funny." Miro retorts, grumbling. "…But anyway, Anna, we should go back to the group. "

"Well, okay." Anna says, sighing. "Just gimme a minute." She walks back into the changing room, and emerges a while later, back in her usual outfit. Once she stuffs her new set of clothes in her backpack, they exit the shop and proceed to where the others were located.

-

As the adults trudge their way through the forest, they come upon a sight of strangeness and mild destruction. This was the area that Nami and Kate had their climatic battle. They notice the hewn tree, the stuck-in knife, and most obviously the trail of torn and upturned soil that was the legacy of Kate's rather unnatural finisher.

Nami walks up to the tree that had her knife stuck into it, and begins climbing it.

"What the heck happened here?" Kai asks, looking around.

"Kate did, that's what." Nami replies, still climbing up. "She was the only one who did not get stuck in the net, so she decided to fight me."

"She did a pretty decent job with it, too." Cliff says observantly.

Popuri walks over to the huge gash in the ground, crouching over it and picking up a handful.

"It's kinda warm…" She says. "What did this?"

"Kate. She swung her sword hard and some kind of energy arc came from it." Nami says, grabbing the knife by the handle once she was high enough and yanking it out. However, she put a bit too much weight on the knife and once it comes out, she slips and falls. Jack takes quick action, however, and runs underneath her to catch her. However, Jack not being in the absolute prime of his life any longer, slightly overestimates his strength and buckles under Nami's weight as she falls onto him. They both land in a heap, groaning and grumbling as they tried to recollect their senses.

"Jack, you didn't have to do that…" Nami says. "I was gonna land on my feet."

"How, by bouncing off of the ground once?" Jack replies. "There was no chance you'd make it."

"What, you think I can't land a simple fall?" Nami asks.

"That wasn't 'simple', that was a half-gainer major-sore-back fall!" Jack retorts.

"Oh, please, it wasn't that major!" Nami says. They wait a moment before speaking again.

"You know, this reminds me of our courtship days." Jack says.

"Yeah, it really does…" Nami replies. "You and I stuck in some random spot of woodlands, stuck to each other like flies to a strip of really old bacon."

"Yeah…" Jack says. "By the way, your knife is kinda uncomfortable, against my gut at that angle... Which reminds me of that one night in Ruby's kitchen…"

"**If** you're both quite done, we have a lot of catching-up to do." Gray says, mostly because he was afraid that they may start going into detail.

"…Oh, of course." Nami says, untangling and getting off of Jack. She clears her throat, going a small shade of red. Jack does the same, and after an uncomfortably silent moment, they all proceed with their normal walking.

-

Miro, Matthew, and Anna meet up with the rest of the group just outside of the bed shop. For some reason, Kate and Lumina seemed a bit awkward about something. Other than that, they seemed ready to proceed with their exploration.

"Did you get them, Miro?" Ricca asks immediately.

"Yeah, yeah…" Miro says, handing over a palmful of Mood Rings. Ricca takes them and puts them on each of their fingers. For some reason, they all came out different colours.

"Whoa… How's that happening?" Matthew asks.

"Mixed emotions." Ricca says.

"Oh. Right, they don't yet have a name for what you are." Miro says.

Every ring that Ricca had went immediately to red. This was Miro's cue to shut up, which he did.

"Anyway, I've found a couple of things while you were gone that you might find interesting." Ricca continues, beginning to walk down a path that the others hadn't taken. They shrug and follow her for a while. Ricca stops in front of a small booth in the middle of the hall, between an abandoned hair salon and an abandoned dollar store.

"Oh, hey, it's a phone booth!" Kate says.

"We should call the farm and see how they're doing." Miro says, walking over to it and picking up the receiver. He dails a number and waits, the others crowding around him.

-

The long-since-rung phone that perched itself in Takakura's house begins ringing, disturbing the dust which collected on it. After a few rings, the receiver is picked up by the green appendage of everyone's favorite two-headed, talkative hybrid-maker, Tartan. It holds the phone up to one of its heads, the other one trying to listen in as well.

"Hey, this is Tartan. Takakura's not in right now, please leave a message after the rustle." It says, both heads in unison.

"Tartan?" Miro's voice says from the other end.

"Hey, it's Miro!" Tartan says. "Say, will you listen to one of my stories?"

"Umm… No offense, but could you get someone bipedal on the line?"

"Oh, it's aaaaall about the legs, isn't it?" Tartan says, sounding offended. "Listen, I have tons of stories to share, I can tell you things that'll leave you gasping for the oxygen that us plants give to ya!"

"Tartan, please?" Miro says.

"Oh, fine." Tartan says, put-out. Just then, the no-longer-disturbed Rock walks into the house, in the middle of a quest to find Tak's Eyebrow Enhancer.

"Hey, Rock! Phone!" The plant says.

Rock looks at Tartan, slightly confused for a moment, but then walks to him and takes the phone.

"Uhh, hello?" He says.

"Is that you, Rock?" Miro asks.

"Yep." Rock replies. "Hey, wait, is this Miro?"

"Yes, it is. And don't worry, Kate and Lumina are fine." Miro says.

"Lumina…? Hmm…" Rock says.

"…Okay, so how're things going?" Miro asks.

"How? Umm…" Rock begins, looking out a window at the scene of moderate chaos outside, with angry chickens, wilting plants, and a very large cat running around, with all of the helpers doing the best they could to control the scene. "…Pretty good, not bad."

"Oh, that's good to hear." Miro says.

"Yeah…" Rock mumbles. "Umm, could I speak to Lumina, please?"

"Yeah, sure." Miro says. He hands the phone over and Lumina speaks into it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Lumina, where did you go?" Rock asks.

"Oh, I went to find Miro." Lumina says. "I found him, too. Of course, Hugh volunteered to take care of my share of the work, but you already knew that, right?"

"Hugh?" Rock repeats, scratching his head. "No, Hugh hasn't been here at all. We've had to do your part of the work as well as ours. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him around in a while now…"

"What? Really?" Lumina says in disbelief. "But he said… well, thank you, Rock. Talk to you later."

"Bye." Rock says, hanging up. He ponders for a moment, and looks over to Tartan. "Do you know anything about Hugh working here?"

"Nope." Tartan replies. "But I can tell you something reeeally interesting that I heard."

"…Meh, why not?" Rock says, sitting down and getting himself comfortable.

"Well, from what I've heard, Hugh has a huge thing for Lumina." Tartan says. "I guess he just said that he'd do the work for her to impress her, but what he's actually doing is that he's just lazing around, doing his usual workouts and all of that… I could've been an athlete. I would've been great at the Pie Eating Contest."

"Okay, that's good..." Rock says, getting up. "Catch you later."

-

Lumina hangs up the phone. Miro and the others look at her.

"What did he say?" Miro asks.

"He said that Hugh wasn't there…" Lumina replies. "Hugh said that he would take care of my part of the work, but he didn't…"

"Meh, I've never really liked Hugh." Miro says. "Besides, the situation is miles and miles away. Hugh and his lies are nothing but a memory."

"Still…" Kate says. "It's weird that he'd do that. It just doesn't seem right. Why would he care if Lumina followed us or not?"

"It sounds like this Hugh guy wants to see Lumina happy." Anna says. "Like, he wants to impress her."

"Maybe he likes her." Matthew suggests. "Of course, most people would actually follow through with their promise…"

"This whole thing is weird…" Ricca says, shaking her head. "But before we start brainstorming about something so pointless, I still have something to show you."

They proceed with their walking, and finally come upon the entrance to a true gem of the hall.

"Oh, sweet, a bowling alley!" Miro says, him and Matthew going through the doors first. The others follow closely behind.

"Look, they have a soda machine!" Anna says.

"And chips and hot dogs and tons of stuff!" Lumina exclaims.

"They must have not stopped restocking this area." Ricca says. "I can't believe that no one who brings the food here has questioned why it's abandoned…"

"Hey, y'know what Harris said," Miro says, aiming his first bowling ball. "'It's a Mayor Thomas government, what do you expect?'!"

"Heh, yeah…" Ricca says, smiling a bit.

"This is awesome, this whole thing!" Matthew says, preparing to lunge a ball down the lane, and most likely into the gutter. "I mean, I can't see how this situation can be spoiled in any way!"

-

William emerges from the forest, finally reaching the other end. He looks around. Not much of interest could be seen quite yet. So, without a word, he proceeds. After a few minutes of walking, he passes over the crest of a hill and sees the teenagers' sanctuary right ahead of him. He blinks, and his eyes widen slightly.

"It exists…" He says. "It is right here, and I do not sense any hordes of evil beings or…"

Suddenly, he senses something else. Behind him, back in the forest, but almost at the edge. He narrows his eyes again and turns, running in that direction at a blinding speed. Usually, he preferred to travel at a normal speed so that he wouldn't expend his power, but this time, he found it necessary.

He had sensed the group of parents, who were walking nonchalantly on their way. Without warning, he pushes in front of them and stops. Cliff and Elli smile, and are about to speak, but they are interrupted by William.

"You," He says, moving his hand once, left to right in a fanning motion, which caused a gust of wind which knocked the entire group of adults off of their feet. He looks to Cliff and Elli.

"You have risked everything. The children were never in danger, you simply brought me on a wild goose chase. You deceived me to meet your own ends, and have endangered my true mission."

"True mission?" Jack says, getting up slowly. "I thought that getting the kids back was your-"

William quickly moves and Jack is struck back to the ground by the back of his hand before he could finish.

"Usually I do not find the need to ask questions, but do you honestly believe that I would be given this power just to locate a group of children?" William asks, looking down at him. He turns back to Elli and Cliff.

"You have proven yourselves to be a threat to my mission, and any threat must be removed." He says, walking over to them.

"W-Wait, William!" Cliff says. "We're your parents, you can't do this!"

"It does not matter who you are." William says. "If it did… Ricca would not have been hurt.."

"You hurt Ricca?" Kai says, looking at him.

"Slightly. She is able to walk and do things quite normally, still." William says, not looking away from his parents. "But that is not important at this time. You two must now be… taken out of consideration."

Nami springs to her feet behind William and approaches him sternly with a serious look on her face. "Look, bud, I don't care what you are, but you can not threaten your own parents like-"

In an instant, William had turned to Nami, snatched a knife from her pocket, and placed it incredibly close to her eye. Nami stops, remaining still.

"I will do whatever is necessary to ensure that my mission is a success." William says coldly. "Step aside."

Nami walks back a few paces, looking to be in disbelief. William drops the knife on the ground and pauses for a second, before stepping a short distance toward the Place. He stops and turns to the adults.

"This is your warning," He says, holding his arms out and shutting his eyes. The ground rattles slightly and a large row of massively thick vines burst from the ground behind him, forming a rigid, wriggly barricade.

Opening his eyes again, William continues.

"I will leave you with it: Do not pass by this boundry. It is that simple."

"Oh yeah? What's stopping us?" Nami asks, regaining herself. The rest of the adults get up from the ground.

"Children must follow the rules and guidelines that adults set out for them, for it is for their own good. This situation is very similar. Surely, the adults can obey rules just as their children should, since it is the adults who lay down the rules."

"So what does that mean?" Jack asks.

"Set a good example." William says simply, turning away from them and toward the wall. He turns his head halfway in their direction and looks at them.

"…or else."

With that, William makes a bounding leap, going right over the wall and landing on the other side, leaving the adults to think of what their next course of action will be.

(How's that for a chapter? I added that bit of MatthewAnna just for anyone who was waiting paitently for it. This one was really fun to make, but it was LONG! I'd appreciate it immensely if you'd review, so please do!)


	23. Part 17, Bad Sportsmanship

Miro and the group are busy enjoying their newest discovery in the Mall to its fullest extent. After seventeen rounds of bowling, Ricca and Kate were tied for first, Anna was around the middle, and Miro and Matthew's score hadn't yet risen above room temperature. After this many frustrating matches, Miro and Matthew decide something.

"Look, umm…" Miro begins, sighing a bit. "Can we take a break? I'm getting a bit bored of… taking a dive for you people."

Kate laughs at Miro's obvious lie.

"You're taking a dive, huh?" She says in total disbelief. "Then please explain why you kicked the shoe shelf after you got seventeen gutterballs in a row."

"…I was… playing the part." Miro says. Matthew nods, implying that he was doing the same when his anger got the better of him and he knocked a nearby ball washer well out of commission.

"And why, pray tell, are you doing us this favor?" Ricca asks, just as incredulous as Kate was.

"We're… we're nice." Matthew says. Miro nods this time.

"Oh? When did this start, just now?" Kate asks.

"Of course not!" Miro says. "We've always been nice, right, Matt?"

"…Possibly." Matthew says. "And… you only noticed how nice we are just now!"

"Really?" Kate says sarcastically. "Well, let's see here. I've kept track of your niceness for the past five years, Miro, let me see if I've overlooked something…"

Kate pulls a small book from a backpack that she had resting on the ground and flipped a few pages back on it.

"Hmm… Starting from my twelfth birthday: Not nice, not nice, not nice, not nice, not nice, indoors, indoors, had a flu, had a flu, had a flu, not nice, not nice, funny-"

"AHA!" Miro says. "You see, you overlooked that day! I was funny!"

"Yeah, but 'funny' isn't always nice." Kate says. "Remember? You were being chased by a bull and fell face-first into a bucket of giblets. That was the funny part."

"What was Jack doing with a bucket of chicken guts outside?" Lumina asks.

"They weren't originally…" Miro mumbles.

"What?" Lumina says.

"There was a bit of a hurricane that ran through the town," Miro explains. "We had trouble getting all of the chickens in the coop, and we… left one. Poor fella didn't stand a chance. He was blown right into Mom and Dad's bedroom window. Their… closed window."

"Ooh… 'splat'?" Lumina suggests.

"Big-time." Miro says. "It took ten days to clean it all off."

"Eew! So THAT'S what that was!" Lumina says, grossed quite out. "Oh, I thought that you had thrown a pot of chili against the window!"

The rest of the group had a bit of a gag reflex, but recover a moment later.

"Ugh… We had the same problem." Anna says. "I think it might've even been the same hurricane that passed by. One of our chickens, Monty… Dad hasn't really gotten over it yet."

"Yeah, I remember that…" Matthew says. "Monty whizzed through town and right through a fence…"

"Ooh…" Kate says.

"A wire fence." Ricca adds.

"Yeow…" Miro says. "Well, it could be worse. It could've been a cow."

"Yes, that would be quite tough to explain to the kids." Matthew says, nodding. "I can see Jack giving it a shot, though. 'Well, hon, it was raining and the glue that held Bessy together washed off. That's why she's all in little cubes.'"

"On the plus side, you wouldn't have to worry about running out of hamburger for a while." Kate adds.

"Can we please stop talking about this?" Anna asks. "I want to have a rest, too. There's some things I need to look for."

"Okay, fine." Ricca says. "Let's have an hour-long break, go on and do what you want."

"Okay." Miro and Matthew both say, walking off immediately. They exit through the doors, leaving everyone else to go and do whatever they intended to do.

After walking silently down a random hall for a while, Miro and Matthew go out of their deep thought processes and let out a 'Hmm…' before speaking.

"Any ideas on how we can turn the game around for us yet?" Miro asks.

"Nope." Matthew says, sighing. "You?"

"Nope." Miro replies. "I can't think of a single thing, we're in a pretty big rut."

"We could score perfect games twice, with the others not scoring a single point either time, and they would still be ahead. Yes, it is a pretty big rut." Matthew says in agreement. "We have to find some way to get the edge on them. Maybe we could cheat…"

"How do you cheat in bowling?" Miro asks. "That's one game where cheating is totally impossible!"

"Nothing's impossible, if you're willing, strong, and stupid enough to do anything possible." Matthew says. "That's some wise words that Jack gave me before he dove off of Mother's Hill with a hang glider built from potato skins and pipes from the plumbing of Barley's house, held together by chewing gum."

"…And I'm guessing that five broken ribs, a broken arm, and fifty-seven stitches proved him wrong?" Miro suggests.

"No, actually…" Matthew says. "…It was fifty-nine."

"I see…" Miro says, cringing a bit. He then looks to his right and notices a very large store.

"Hey, y'think we'll find something in there?" He asks.

"Possibly." Matthew replies. "It looks to have many aisles, rows, sections and the like. There must be something useful…"

They both walk into the large room, which had a high roof and many sectioned aisles in different categories for people's shopping pleasure. Miro and Matthew first decide to check the hardware section for usable things. Once they were deep within the aisle, Miro notices something.

"Ah… This'll do well." He says, walking to a small pile of propane tanks.

"What do you have planned?" Matthew asks, looking at them from behind Miro.

"I think… we could put some of this inside their bowling balls, and then have them explode before they reach the pins!" Miro says.

"…But wouldn't the girls notice that their bowling balls are all exploding?" Mathew asks.

"Only one way to find out." Miro says, kneeling down and opening the nozzle of one. It hissed as the gas escaped from it.

"What're you doing?" Matthew asks.

"I need to make sure they're full." Miro says.

"Oh." Matthew replies. "Say, I've got the perfect thing to make them blow up." He pulls a lighter from a pocket in his backpack. He had been using it to light the bonfires as they traveled. It was lucky that he decided to bring it, because no one in the group had the patience to try the 'rub two sticks together' version of fire-lighting.

"Awesome." Miro says, ignoring the fact that the tank was still going. "But are you sure that it's not out of fluid?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Matthew replies, walking up to the tanks and looking at them. He was trying to come up with a way to get the liquid in the propane tanks to not become a gas once it was released into the bowling balls. His mind wanders back to the lighter, however.

"Then again, I guess I should make sure…"

"MATTHEW, NO-"

The resulting explosion reduced a large section of the hardware aisle to a smouldering mound of discount tags and bits of former all-purpose battery-powered multi-functional things, which would have just ripped some poor idiot off anyway.

Matthew and Miro wake up a few minutes later, groggily shaking their heads clear of soot and patting down any parts of their clothing that were still smoldering. They both sit up, waiting patiently for their senses to put themselves back in place.

"Matthew…" Miro says slowly.

"Yeah?" Matthew replies, looking over to him.

"You… are a BAD DECISION-MAKER!" Miro yells.

"…Yeah." Matthew says in agreement, sighing. He looks around once, suddenly noticing that they had landed in a separate aisle, far distant from the one they were previously at.

"…Do you have any idea where we are, Miro?" Matthew asks.

"…No, actually." Miro replies, suddenly noticing this himself. "It's kind of… unsettling, though."

The aisle that they were in had very little resemblance with any place they had ever been. Everything was amazingly clean-looking, with many strange little containers, which were coloured in shades of blue, purple, teal-ish, or any other pigment which looked soft and fluffy. The boxes were labeled with strange names that were foreign to Miro and Matthew. They get up slowly, walking tentatively toward a shelf and looking at them.

"…Light …Days?" Miro reads on one of the boxes, confused.

"Flexible… Pads…?" Matthew says, just as confused.

"Non-crinkling?"

"Portable?"

"With wings?!" Miro exclaims. "What the hell is this?!"

"I don't know… but it frightens me…" Matthew says, him and Miro taking a small step back.

"It must be some sort of 'hygiene' thing." Miro says. "That would explain why we don't know what it is…"

"Some of these look like what I use to clean out the sink…" Matthew says observantly.

"Yeah…" Miro says. "…Let's get out of here."

"Good idea." Matthew says, him and Miro beginning to walk down an aisle. Miro stops them, however, and points down.

"Look, there's a trapdoor." Miro says. "I wonder where it leads…"

"Only one way to find out." Matthew says.

"Right." Miro replies. "Help me move the box of Maxis on top of it."

Matthew nods, he and Miro going to either side of the huge box and pulling it up with all of their strength. They groan and grumble, slowly stepping away from the trapdoor.

"Man… these things are heavy!" Miro says, straining to keep it held up.

"It even says so on the side of the box!" Matthew adds.

Once they had moved fully away from the trapdoor, both of them drop the massive box in relief, the box landing with a loud boom. The relief on Miro's face was short-lived, however, as he suddenly notices that that it had landed very hard on his right foot. He looks down, takes in a slow breath through clenched teeth, and shuts his eyes.

"Matthew…" He begins.

"Umm, yes?" Matthew replies.

"GET THIS BOX OFF OF ME!!!" Miro demands, losing his calmness and desperately trying to pull his foot out from under it. Matthew quickly runs over to Miro's side and tries to push the box off. Failing to do this, he tries kicking it off. This attempt also failing, he instead tries to kick Miro's foot out from under it. He can't kick the foot itself, so he aims for the next nearest thing; the shin.

"OWW! OWW!" Miro says. "Quit that! Just help me lift it!"

With their combined effort, Miro and Matthew both tilt the box over, freeing Miro's foot and making the box fall on one side. Miro immediately begins hopping on one foot, holding his other, crushed one and mumbling phrases that are best left unquoted.

"You okay, man?" Matthew says.

Miro stops and looks at him.

"No." He says in a very palpable, obvious, 'no-duh-you-moron' way.

"Right…" Matthew says, putting a hand behind his head. "So anyway, let's open that trapdoor."

The two of them approach the trapdoor, Miro not daring to put much pressure on his right foot as he walked, and they pull at the handle, opening it and letting it fall to one side. They couldn't tell what was inside, or how far down it went, since everything below was shrouded in darkness.

"…You first." Miro says.

"No, I'm okay, you can go…" Matthew says, not looking away from it.

"No, I insist." Miro says. "It's the least I can do after you helped get that box off of my foot!"

Miro quickly puts one hand on Matthew's back and gives him a headstart on the way down. Matthew's yells could be heard as he fell, and once Miro heard a sound that determined that Matthew had found the floor, he whistles in commendment. It was a deep hole.

"You okay, Matt?" Miro yells down.

"I will be, just give me a minute to re-locate my more important joints!" Matthew yells back from below.

"…Hey, can you put something soft down there for me to land on?" Miro requests.

"Sure. Actually, there's already something soft down here!" Matthew replies.

"Are you sure?" Miro asks.

"Oh, yeah, there's a ton of it all over this place!" Matthew says.

"Okay…" Miro says hesitantly. "I'm trusting you. Here I come!"

Miro takes in a breath, exhales slowly, and lets himself fall down the hole. After a moment of freefalling, Miro makes a much, much harder landing than expected. The ground was slightly sandy, with a very solid layer of rock underneath the sand. Miro remains on the ground for a long while, and then gets up extremely slowly, obviously in less good condition than he was previously. That was saying something, too, since he had just recently been near the center of an explosion.

"…I thought you said… that there was something soft down here…" Miro says in an acidic tone.

"What's softer than air?" Matthew points out. A vein in Miro's head became very visible and he clenches his fists. After a moment, he takes in a breath and calms down. No need to lose composure over something like a freefall into almost solid rock.

"Let's just try to find a way out of here." Miro says.

The room that they were in was extremely strange. It looked like an underground cavern. The walls and roof were made up of soil and rock, and the only source of light was a hole in the roof about ten meters away, in which sunlight shone down. How sunlight could get in through the middle of a mall was up for questioning, but Miro and Matthew just figured that there was a sunroof somewhere nearby. The two of them stepped under the light in interest, looking up. The hole was about a meter wide, large enough for them to climb through. Unfortunately, it was much too high.

"Fer-get it. There's no way out." A macabre-sounding voice spoke from beside them. Miro and Matthew jump, looking in its direction. The voice sounded old; wasted-away. Once Miro and Matthew's eyes adjust to the light, they see what the source of the voice was.

"Wh… n-no way…" Miro stammers, stepping back slightly with his eyes open wide.

(HA! Time for me to leave you in suspense! I know, you're making strangling motions at your computer monitors right now, but the chapter I had planned was just way too long… maybe even longer than that last one I did. This just seemed like a good cut-off point. Besides that fact (the fact being that I'm lazy and I wanna publish this chapter before I'm presumed dead and/or fingerless), myself and a couple of other authors are co-working on… well, I'll keep it secret for now. Needless to say, it's HM and it's going to be pretty friggin' long.

Oh, and before I forget, look at the bottom-left of the screen. Do you see the little whitish-blue rectangle, kinda the same colour as those weird potatoes that you were once double-dared to eat, with the words 'Submit Review' in it? Good. Now, do you see the little 'Go' button next to it? Nonono, more to the right… right… right… STOP- No, wait, left… left… GOOD! Now please push it, and tell me what you think about the story! I like opinions, ideas, suggestions, thoughts, indeterminable grunting, whatever! Okay, yes, I'm milking it… I'll just shut up now… REVIEW!)


	24. Part 18, THE CLINCHER

(This one's going to be the defining chapter, the big one that makes sense out of everything. I hope you enjoy it, I've been planning it out for a long time now. Go on, read, what're you doing wasting your time reading the author's note?!)

Miro steps backward a couple of paces, looking at the revealed figure in total disbelief. Matthew is also a bit surprised, but not nearly as much as Miro. Matthew wasn't quite sure why Miro was so taken aback, until Miro spoke.

"Wh… G… Galen?!" Miro stammers out, still looking at him. "But I thought you were… dead!"

Galen, revealed in all of his ancient ugliness, wheezes out a chuckle grimly. He stands there, supported by his crutch, with his hunched back and his pointed chin and his crooked nose, looking to be far, far older and grayer than most people could survive to becoming.

"Dead?… PAH!" He spits, sending an unbelievable amount of saliva directly at Miro's face, which contacted quite nastily. Miro remains still for a moment, his eyes shut, with old-man spit dripping down his face, and Galen continued.

"I wish I were dead, I know, but… it just ain't happening."

"Err… what do you mean?" Matthew asks, taking a small step away from Miro in disgust.

"Whaddaya mean what do I mean?" Galen replies, looking at him. He then glances at Miro again, noticing the spit, and grumbles in frustration.

"Now d'ya see what ya've made me do? I've been saving that up fer three weeks! I was gonna save up more until I could use it to swim my way out of here!"

Miro finally making a movement, raises up one hand and slowly pulls it across his face, wiping the worst of the spit from his eyes, nose, and mouth. He opens his eyes again and looks at Galen.

"Wait, but… I could've sworn that you died!" He says. "I remember, when I was little, I saw you fall off of the cliffside, hit a bunch of rocks on the way down, land in the river, and drift off into the ocean, and a bunch of sharks came and ate you!"

"Hah…" Galen mumbles. "But I didn't die… IT wouldn't let me die… 'sides, I'm so calloused, I'm tougher than beef jerky, those sharks couldn't even scratch me!"

"But we buried you… didn't we?" Miro asks.

"Y'thought y'did, but you didn't." Galen replies. "I wasn't in that coffin, they just dug Nina up and re-buried her."

"Oh, right… because we could never find your body!" Miro suddenly remembers. "That's why! …But… what's 'it'?"

"It…" Galen belgins. He shuffles closely to the two, an stares at them. "…The _demon_… That's what 'it' is."

"Demon?" Matthew repeats. "What demon?"

"Do you bunch want ta hear a story of evil, treachery and hatred?" Galen asks.

"Sure." Miro says, shrugging. "It doesn't look like we're going anywhere…"

"You asked for it…" Galen wheezes. He clears his throat, and speaks.

"Back when I was the keen, young age of 87, I came to realize that I was not going to live as long as my lovely wife Nina… Nina, I remember when we met. She was the most beautiful thing that you'd ever find in the town of… huh, I can't seem to remember… I saved her from marrying some big-time loser farmer, y'know… Anywho, I knew that she'd live longer than me, and I didn't want her to go through the pain of seeing me die first… so I made a deal. I came across an evil thing one day. It was down in the Archemological Dig, where I had gotten lost because Carter covered the entrance while I was down there looking for my dentures… It was lurking there for some reason. I asked it what it wanted, it didn't do anything. It pointed to where my dentures were, and I took them. I then thought for a minute or two, and asked it if I could ask it a favor. It didn't talk, so I just asked it anyway. I asked it if it could make sure I died after Nina, so she wouldn't have to live without me… It gave me a nod, and that's about when Carter figured out that I was down there and uncovered the way out."

"But… Now that Nina's worm food, you can go and die, right?" Miro asks.

"Nope." Galen replies glumly. "Sure Nina's gone, but I'm not going to go see her anytime soon. The demon made me immortal… I can't die no matter what, and don't think I haven't tried. I've done it all; stabbing, hanging, holding my breath, running int'a the middle of a chicken stampede, re-wiring my pacemaker, nothing works. Y'see, the demon needs me alive. When I gave myself away to it, it tied itself to me. I'm the source of its strength now. As I age and age, it feeds off of the shreds of remaining youth that I lose… It needs me, y'see."

"Right, then…" Matthew says. "Look, if the demon needs you, where is it? Why isn't it here? How do we know you're not lying?"

"What are ya, braindead?" Galen says, giving out a single half-chuckle. "I'm a hundred and thirteen years old! I don't drink any red wine, I don't take my pills, my spine probably looks like an upside-down J, there's no chance that I should be alive! As for where the demon is, how should I know? I don't keep in touch with it, I just have to be alive, not near it."

"Hmm… So it can be anywhere?" Miro asks.

"Yep." Galen says. "But we can't go lookin' for it, 'cause there's no way out of here."

"No, there has to be…" Matthew says, putting a hand on his chin. "There must be some way…"

"If only we had brought one of those things with wings, then we could fly out…" Miro says, cursing himself for not doing so.

"Yes, or those very large ones." Matthew says. "We could have probably built a large platform from them…"

"Ooh, I wonder what this hole's for…?" Comes a voice from above them. Looking up to where the trapdoor was, Miro and Matthew see Anna looking down, not quite noticing them yet.

"Anything down there? Hello? Riiiiicolaaaaa!" She says, giggling.

"Anna!" Matthew yells. "Down here!"

"Huh?" Anna says, squinting to see who it was. "Is that you, Matthew?"

"No, it's Hiedi Gorbastoffle, the Chicken Queen! We've come for your earlobes!" Miro says sarcastically. "Of course it's us!"

"Miro?" Anna says. "Err… what're you guys doing down there?"

"Oh, y'know, hanging out, shooting pool." Miro says with continued sarcasm. "We fell! There's no way out, or at least that's what the incredibly old guy down here says!"

"Oh… Well, I'll try to find something!" Anna says.

"Wait, Anna!" Matthew says just before Anna was going to leave.

"…Yes?" Anna asks, looking back at him.

"What're you doing in that aisle? Are the things in those boxes used for something?"

Anna goes beet red and smiles nervously, a sweatdrop visible. "…Umm, well, you see… Bye!" She says, slamming the trapdoor shut. The sound of shuffling could be heard, as though Anna was putting the heavy box on top of the trapdoor again.

"…Nice going." Miro mumbles.

"She'll come back…" Matthew says. "Just… give her a minute…"

"Forget it." Miro says. He turns to Galen. "Maybe you can help us out."

"Don' even bother." Galen says. "I've been stuck down here for years, y'can't get out."

"Well… how did you get in?" Miro asks.

"Oh… I fell down the stairs." Galen says.

"…**STAIRS?!**" Miro and Matthew shout, looking at him.

"Yep. Right 'ere." Galen says, shuffling to a darkened area, which Miro and Matthew follow him to. There it was, around a corner. A perfectly usable stairway.

"I thought you said there was no way out!" Miro says angrily.

"There ain't." Galen says. "I'm too old to climb stairs. They should install a damned escalator, I say…"

Matthew sighs, shaking his head.

"Let's go, Miro." He says, beginning to walk up the stairs.

"Oh, one more thing." Galen says.

"Yep?" Miro replies, turning to him.

"Tell your Dad that he should wax my gravestone every day, even though I ain't dead. Nina's, too. 'Cause… she really is dead."

"What if he doesn't believe me?" Miro asks.

"He should… if he doesn't, then… PAH!" Galen spits once more, coating Miro's face with a fresh layer of slimy expectorate. "…Aw, lookit what ya made me do! There goes the rest of it…"

"…Oh… _sorry_…" Miro says through clenched teeth, beginning to wipe his face off again.

The two of them then continue to walk up the stairs, emerging in the end of the hall they went down, right next to the store they were just in. They decided not to bring Galen along, since… well, he didn't ask, now did he? They begin to walk back down the hall, figuring that their hour was almost up and they had to get back to the bowling alley. They had failed to find a good way to cheat, which they sighed about.

As they passed by the main entrance, they feel a cold wind chill down their backs.

"Brr… Did somebody turn on the air conditioning?" Matthew asks, looking around.

"…We've felt that wind before…" Miro says, him and Matthew both stopping. With a quick motion, Miro draws his baseball bat from his Rucksack, which he was smart enough to put in an easy-to-grab position, and spins around, striking at the person behind them. The person grabs the end of the bat before it could contact him, however, and thrusts it aside, throwing it from Miro's grip.

"William…" Miro growls, stepping back a bit and glaring. Mathew steps back as well, more-or-less also glaring.

"Do not concern yourselves, I have no intent to bring you back." William says calmly, looking at Miro without much expression.

"Oh, really?" Miro says. "Well, for some reason, I don't believe you!"

Miro throws a fast punch at William, but he grabs Miro's wrist and throws him to the ground, placing a foot on his back.

"You have little choice but to believe me." He says.

"…You put up a good argument…" Miro admits, William removing his food from on top of him. Surprisingly, William offers Miro a hand, which Miro hesitantly accepts. He pulls him to his feet easily, and Miro releases his grip, stepping back a bit. He still wasn't convinced of all of this.

"Why are you so nice all of a sudden, William?" Matthew asks, also a bit skeptical.

"Normally, I would not be." William says. "This is an exception."

"How so?" Miro asks.

"It seems that I owe you a certain favor." William says, not breaking from his emotionless tone. "I pursued you only because I was informed that you were in danger, that you were walking into a trap. It seems, however, that there are no evil creatures here that wish to harm you. I was deceived by the parents to aid them in their cause."

"So… you're not going to drag us back home?" Matthew says.

"I have no reason to." William replies.

"And you owe us for all that you did to try stopping us?" Miro pursues.

"Correct." William says.

"So, TECHNICALLY, in the sense of the term of the phrase, you're on our side now?" Miro asks.

"Yes."

"COOL!" Miro and Matthew say, smiling happily.

"But… what about the parents? Are they coming?" Matthew asks.

"I have dealt with them. If they are smart, they will not proceed." William says.

-

"We have to get through this…" Elli says, looking up at the palisade wall of roots in front of them.

"I know, but how?" Ann asks.

"We could always go around." Popuri points out. The others look at her strangely, and she looks back.

"What?" She says. "Look, the wall ends right there!" She points to a far edge, where the wall of roots makes an abrupt end.

"Oh…" Nami says.

"Well, let's go." Jack says, him (them, if you count the other Jack…) and the others beginning to walk in that direction. Once they make it to the end, they simply walk by the barricade without another thought of it.

-

William suddenly looks like he had noticed something, and shuts his eyes.

"They have passed the boundary." He says plainly.

"So… so the parents are coming?" Matthew says.

"Do not worry, they can not pass by me so easily…" William says.

"'Pass by you'?" Miro echoes, confused. "What're you talking about…?"

"My power extends beyond my physical abilities." William says. "And they will learn that any facet of my power is not to be trifled with."

-

Just before they were completely beyond the barrier, the adults suddenly notice something. Kai notices it first.

"Umm… Those roots are wriggling." He says.

"They were always wriggling." Nami says, not bothering to look. "What, did you just notice?"

"No, Nami, they're really starting to move fast…" Jack-from-the-Valley says, also looking at it. Nami sighs and turns to see it, as do the rest of the group.

The roots did look like they were disturbed by something, they were writhing a bit strangely and unpredictably. They suddenly stop, completely, for a second. Just before the group was about to continue walking, the nearby roots lashed out at them, immediately grabbing the Jacks, Cliff, Elli, and Popuri. Nami draws her knives, but doubted if they could do much against such thick roots. Mary, Kai, Gray, and Ann stumble back, each narrowly missing an incoming root. One of them lashes out at Nami, and she dodges to one side, slashing at it with a knife in the meantime. However, as she predicted, the cut wasn't deep enough to slice the root completely through.

"It's no use…" Nami growls, ready for the next strike.

"Glad to hear you're so up about it, hon!" Jack yells as a root constricting his neck waves him around.

Kai draws a good-sized swordfish from his pack, and manages to slice the tip of one root off, but there were far too many for just him to handle.

"We need to figure this out!" He says.

"Do they have a weakness?" Gray asks.

"They're plants, they're photosynthetic!" Mary replies. "Unless we can shut the sun off for a few days, I can't see any way of stopping them!"

"Maybe the plants don't, but their master does!" Cliff says as a root dangles him by one leg.

"Oh yes, William!" Elli says, being held by the waist by one of the roots. "He must focus to do this, so maybe we can break his focus!"

"Well, we're listening!" Ann says, narrowly dodging another root.

"We can't help them!" Popuri says, being held up by an arm and a leg. "They have to do it!"

"Who?" Jack asks.

"Us!" Elli says. "Me and Cliff! We know how to stop him!"

"Oh yeah!" Cliff suddenly remembers. "All we have to do is make him uncomfortable, that way he'll lose his focus!"

"How're you gonna do that?" Nami asks.

"Just watch." Cliff says with a smirk on his face. "Ready, Elli?"

"Yep." Elli replies. They both clear their throats, come up with the single cheeziest love song that they had ever sung to one another, to William's disgrace, and begin singing.

"_Every night in my dreams  
I see you, I feel you,  
That is how I know you go on _

_Far across the distance  
And spaces between us  
You have come to show you go on _

_Near, far, wherever you are  
I believe that the heart does go on  
Once more you open the door  
And you're here in my heart  
And my heart will go on and on _

_Love can touch us one time  
And last for a lifetime  
And never let go till we're gone _

_Love was when I loved you  
One true time I hold to  
In my life we'll always go on _

_Near, far, wherever you are  
I believe that the heart does go on  
Once more you open the door  
And you're here in my heart  
And my heart will go on and on…"_

-

William suddenly looks to be struggling with his focus. His eyelids begin to twitch and his hands go into fists. As his parents continue to sing, William continues to struggle with more and more difficulty. He places his hands on the side of his head and gives out a low growl. He could hear their singing in his head, it was completely unbearable. If one facet of William's former self still existed in him, it was that hearing his parents singing romantically to each other was really, really uncomfortable. Finally, he growls out a statement.

"…You have won this battle…"

And with that, he lets his hands drop and relaxes, looking like he had just lifted a heavy burden from himself.

-

At the end of the song, the roots finally give way and drop their captives, rather hard, back to the ground. Writhing in agony, they suddenly begin to shrink away and quickly dissolve into nothing.

"Y… You did it!" The Jacks say in amazement.

"Of course we did." Cliff says.

"I think we know our own son, don't we?" Elli says. Cliff nods.

"Well, you didn't know that he could do that." Nami says, not impressed. "You also didn't know that he has some 'true mission' and he now thinks of us as obstacles."

"Hey, yeah…" Jack says, getting up and standing beside Nami. "What's up with that, anyhow? Is there something you aren't telling us?"

"I think now would be a good time to explain yourselves." Nami says in a rather demanding fashion.

Elli and Cliff sigh and look at each other. Elli decides to speak.

"Well, you see…"

-

"What happened?" Miro asks, looking at William.

"They have managed to breach my defences, by… overwhelming means." William says.

"So they're coming?!" Matthew says in alarm.

"It is not a concern." William says, looking at the main entrance. He holds out a hand, which glows green for a moment, and a set of vines shoot from the ground and wrap themselves in among all of the doors, tying the handles together and tightly wrapping every part of the doors which could even suggest that they are openable.

Miro and Matthew look shocked.

"How did… you… do that?!" Miro breathes out in amazement.

"It is my power." William says. "I can control nature."

"No kidding…" Miro says, recovering a bit. He looks at Matthew.

"Are you comprehending what I'm comprehending…?" Matthew asks slowly.

"I think so…" Miro says. They both look at William.

"William, you're gonna win us a game." Miro says, smirking evilly.

When they reached the bowling alley, Miro opens the door and walks in, followed by the other two. Anna, Ricca, Kate, and Lumina were already there, waiting patiently for their return. Once they noticed William, everyone but Lumina gasped and stepped back.

"Miro, you you realize that there's a superpowered nemesis of ours following you around?!" Kate asks, pointing to William.

"Don't worry, don't worry." Matthew says.

"He's on our side now." Miro reassures them. "It turns out that he… umm… what was it again?" He looks to William.

"I was deceived by the parents. They informed me that you were in danger, but you are not. Therefore they are enemies, and I now owe you for the disturbance I have caused."

"…Really…?" Ricca says, walking over to William. "So, now you're with us, in the group?"

"In those respects, yes. I am in debt, and I must still protect you from other forces." William says plainly.

"Oh, you mean like the parents?" Kate says.

"…Yes." William says.

"…Oh, so that's William?" Lumina asks, finally getting it. "Wow, I thought he'd be a lot uglier."

"You thought wrong." Ricca says, looking at her and almost looking like she took offense to that.

"…Anyway, why don't we continue our game?" Miro says, smirking suspiciously.

"I don't see why not." Kate says, shrugging.

"Okay. I believe it was your turn." Matthew says, sharing the same smirk.

The group of them return to their game, Kate going up first. The rest of them wait on a bench, Miro and Matthew sitting on either side of William. The two of them whisper the plan into William's ears, and William nods slightly in response. When Kate rolled the bowling ball down the lane, William summons a gust of wind without moving and blows the ball into the gutter. Kate seems confused for a moment, but shrugs and picks up a second ball. When she rolls it down the lane again, William turns a section of the lane into quicksand and the ball sinks down in it. The lane immediately returns to normal once the ball was gone. Kate looked bewildered for a moment, and turns back to the others.

"What the heck just happened?" She asks.

"I…" Matthew begins. "…I heard that there were areas of soft earth that pop up once in a while in these parts. It just tends to happen. Keep going."

Kate pauses for a moment, shrugs, and picks up another ball. Miro and Matthew sigh in relief. As Kate was approaching the lane for her throw, William turns a section of the ground in front of her into ice, on which she slips for a few feet and lands on her back on the other side of the red boundary line.

"Out of bounds!" Miro exclaims. "That's zero points for Kate that round. Sorry. Ricca, you're up!"

Kate gets up slowly, the ice gone at this point, and walks in an exasperated way to the bench, Ricca walking by her. Ricca picks a ball up and rolls it down the lane. Just before it hit the pins, William causes a small slope of rock to raise up, which the ball rolls up and jumps over, also jumping over the pins.

"Jeez, be more gentle with your throw, Ricca!" Miro says. "That way it won't bounce like that!"

"It couldn't bounce like that…" Ricca mumbles to herself, ignoring Miro. "Something strange is going on…"

She picks up another ball and readies herself for a throw. William flicks his wrist and a hummingbird appears in his hand. He waits for the right moment and releases it, the little bird flying toward Ricca. Just as Ricca pulls her arm back for the throw, the hummingbird places itself between her arm and her side, fanning her underarm with its wings. Ricca's face contracts, her mind suddenly preoccupied to resisting the tickling, and her throw is sent off-course. It lands shamefully in the gutter, and Ricca swats the annoying bird away, looking a bit flustered and very annoyed.

"Hmm… Now where did that bird come from all of a sudden…?" Miro asks innocently, looking around.

"That was _not _a coincidence!" Ricca yells, glaring at them. "What are you doing to make these things happen?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Matthew says, shrugging. "I mean, it's not as though we can control nature…"

"…I'm gonna trust that." Ricca says suspiciously. "But if it keeps happening…"

And so it did, with Ricca's third attempt stopped by a small earthquake sending it off-course. It was then the guys' turn, with otherwise-hopeless shots hitting their mark and getting strikes every single time. Examples of this are when a small canyon suddenly forms in the middle of the lane, guiding the ball to the pins, and when the gutter is inexplicably filled with large beetles, which roll the ball to the pins once it lands in there. By the time Miro and Matthew had tied Ricca and Kate, with Miro's next strike aided by a sudden tremor knocking the rest of the pins down once Miro's ball had knocked a single one down, the girls were fed up. They all stand up and stomp over to Miro, Matthew, and William.

"What is going on?!" Kate says angrily. "It seems like awfully good timing that these weird acts of nature are happening in the middle of the game, helping you win, doesn't it?"

"I suppose so." Miro says, acting cool as a cucumber.

"It's really quite interesting, these phenomena all taking place within the confines of this bowling alley." Matthew says.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's a field day for an egghead like you." Ricca remarks.

"Egghead?" Matthew says, an eye twitching. "I prefer 'sophisticated covert-type', thank you."

"Whatever." Ricca says. She turns to Miro.

"So, do you have anything to say in your defence?" She asks.

"Nope." Miro says. "As it stands, you have no proof that any of this has anything to do with us. I'm just playing the game, honestly."

Ricca thinks for a moment, considers something, and then she and the other girls turn to look at William. Miro and Matthew become a bit more nervous.

"William, tell me," Ricca begins. "Have you been doing anything that would… tilt the odds of the game in their favor?"

"Yes."

"NO HE HASN'T!" Miro and Matthew say, each putting a hand over William's mouth. William turns his eyes at either of them, and then causes their hands to catch fire. Miro and Matthew pull their hands back, blowing to put them out. Once they were out, they look at William.

"Why did you tell them?!" Miro says. "We told you not to tell them!"

"And Ricca told me to tell them." William adds tonelessly.

"So?" Matthew says. "The point of being told not to tell someone is to not tell them even if they are told to tell them!"

"Incorrect." William says. "I list requests by priority. Ricca is of a higher priority than both of you."

"What?!" Miro and Matthew say.

"Really?" Ricca says, her eyes widening a bit. "Well… that's good. You're a high priority, too…"

"Hmm… Pardon us while we puke out the food we've eaten recently that is urging us violently to do so." Miro says.

"Yes, your little hint of emotion to William was like the wind…" Matthew says in a poetic tone. "…It blows."

"…William, I'm a high priority, right?" Ricca says.

"Correct." William says.

"Good. Then you can do me a favor?" Ricca begins. Miro and Matthew's eyes widen.

A moment later, the two guys are on the floor outside of the alley, in the hall, looking to be in even worse condition than they were before the fall and the propane explosion. They are followed by the rest of the group, including William, who stand around them expectantly.

"So… have you learned anything today?" Kate asks.

"Yes…" Miro says, looking blankly up at the roof. "Pain is… bad…"

"I can aid them in their recovery, if you wish." William says.

"Hmm… Oh, I suppose so." Ricca says, sighing.

William walks to them, crouches down, and places a hand on either of them. He closes his eyes and his hands glow white for a moment. He then stops, opening his eyes and stepping back.

Miro and Matthew get up, trying to find the bruises that they had recently gained, and now lost.

"Wow… what did you just do?" Miro asks, looking at William.

"I gave a very small amount of my power to aid your body in its recovery process." William says. "However, I took it back as soon as you were competently healed."

"…Jee, thanks." Miro says.

"It's good to know that we were a very small amount as powerful as you… for a second." Matthew says, sighing.

After a pause, Ricca looks to Anna, who looks to Matthew, who looks to Ricca, who looks to Anna and Matthew, who then look to each other and Ricca, and then they all look to William.

"Umm… We've been meaning to ask you something…" Anna begins.

"If we could be so kind…" Matthew says.

"…Proceed." William says.

"How did… how did you become like you are right now?" Ricca says. "I mean, Matthew saw you going to the Pond, but he didn't see what happened…"

"…That information is…" William begins. But he is cut off, or he almost seems to cut himself off, since it looked like he was listening to another voice. After a moment, he nods.

"…I understand." He says to no one that the group could see. He looks at the others and takes in a breath calmly.

"I was brought to the Pond because the pastor, Carter, told me and my family that I was to go there. He did not say why, only that the Goddess willed us to. That day, they brought me to it, and we gave an offering as is the custom. The Harvest Goddess then appeared before us, and spoke of a task that she needed accomplished. We accepted the task, and I walked to the very edge of the Pond. She then bestowed me with the unfathomable power that I now possess; enhanced physical ability, control over nature, and removal of any emotions that may impede my journey.

The day that you four left, the day after I was given this power, I was told by my parents to use my abilities to help them in the retrieval of you. I informed them that, since you were self-sufficient enough to survive in the wilderness without need of aid, I could not spare myself to help them. They then told me that you were, in fact, in mortal danger. They told me that your final destination would lead to an area filled with evil creatures, and that you were under the illusion that you were going to some fanciful paradise. Looking back at this, I should have known better. They did not even know where you were going at that point."

The rest of the group was quiet for a moment, digesting all of this information in. Ricca is the first to speak out.

"So… You can go back to normal… once your mission's done, right?"

"Correct." William says. "If I survive the mission, my power will be given away back to the Goddess."

"S-Survive?!" Ricca stammers out, the others looking a bit surprised as well. "You mean that you might… die?"

"Correct." William says. The group is silent for a long time after this.

-

"So that's how it all happened…" Gray says, after the group heard what had happened from Elli and Cliff. They were now walking toward the Place, with no further obstacles.

"Exactly." Cliff says, nodding. "You see, we had to try something to help us get the kids back, we couldn't just ignore such a perfect opportunity!"

"But what is his real mission?" Mary asks.

"How should we know?" Elli asks. "William was given the orders privately, we didn't hear what the Goddess told him."

"And you figured that whatever orders they were didn't matter as much as what you wanted him do do?" Nami asks.

"Well…" Elli begins.

"Didn't it cross your mind that he might not like it if he found out that you were _lying_?" Nami persists.

"It… wasn't like that." Cliff says. "I mean, it was, but I thought that he'd forgive us if he did find out since… well, we're his parents. And hey, at least Elli and I saved all of us from those roots."

"Yeah, that was amazing!" Kai says, him and the Jacks still reeling over the impressive victory that Elli and Cliff scored over the giant plants, changing the subject completely.

"It was nothing, really…" Elli says modestly. "We just sang a song, that's all."

"Hmm… Hey, I remember a good poem that I made up. It's not a song, but…" Jack says, turning to Nami. "Do you remember it? I made it up just a while ago."

"Hmm… Which one was that…?" Nami asks.

"Here, I'll recite it." Jack says, pulling a random paper from the inner reaches of his shirt. He clears his throat and takes in a breath.

"It is autumn, we walk hand in hand, my wife and I  
Our love is like music, now and then a string breaks,  
And what were sharps are now flats.  
Our love is like a fretless bass,  
We've been playing it so long we know exactly where to put our fingers."

Nami stomps on Jack's foot, and while he was busy taking in the pain, she snatches the paper from him. She remembered it now.

"Jack, what did I say about reciting that in public, or anywhere, at any time?!" She demands.

"Err… Don't?" Jack suggests.

"Right." Nami says, crumpling the paper up and shoving it into the deepest recesses of her bag. Jack sighs in disappointment, and then looks forward and notices something.

"Wh… WOW!" He says, pointing forward. The others turn to look, and see the incredible Mall in front of them.

"…Well, that saves us time looking for them." Gray says.

"Yes, I'm quite sure they wouldn't ignore something so blatantly obvious." Mary says, nodding.

"Not to mention cool!" The hatted Jack adds. "I remember this place, it's exactly how it looked when I came here!"

"Yeah, let's go inside!" Popuri says urgently. "I can't wait to see what's on sale in there! Ooh, I haven't been in a Mall since I was in Highschool!"

"She made it to Highschool?" Jack whispers to Nami. Nami shrugs.

"Anyway, yes, let's go!" Kai proclaims, the whole group speeding forward. However, when they made it to the entrance a minute or so later, the doors did not swing open for them. Instead, they all smash into the main entrance in a big pile.

"Ooh… that smarts…" Kai says.

"_My back_…" Jack groans.

"Yeah, mine kinda cracked there, too…" Nami says.

"_No, Nami, I mean you have your elbow in my back…_" Jack continues. Nami notices this and pulls it out with a disconcerting crack. It couldn't be told if it was Nami's elbow or Jack's back that made the noise, but three months were definitely taken out of someone's life somewhere in the process.

"Can everyone clear out, please?" Cliff asks, who was in the middle of this horizontal dogpile. The others groan and shuffle their way a distance from one another, now focusing on why the doors didn't open.

"Hmm… hey, look at that." Gray says, pointing into the inside of the glass portion of the door. There were many vines visible, wrapped in front of them in a way that kept the doors tightly sealed.

"This is probably Wiliam's work." Nami says.

"Well, we could try singing…" Elli suggests.

"No, the vines aren't moving." Gray points out. "That means that William couldn't be focusing on them. It probably wouldn't affect him."

"Well, does anyone else have a plan?" Ann asks, looking around at them.

"Simple." The blue-overalled Jack says, pulling something from his Rucksack. It was a Mysterile Sickle.

"Ah, that's Grandpa's work." Gray says.

"That it is." Jack says, pulling the sickle back. "Now you guys might want to step back, unless you'd like to look like the weeds that I've taken out with this puppy."

The others comply, stepping a safe distance back, as Jack pulls the sickle fully back and swings it, spinning around quite a few times before stopping. At first it looked like nothing happened, but then the vines behind the door collapse to the ground, and fine lines were visible on the door itself.

"Thank you, Saibara." Jack says, putting the Sickle back into his Rucksack.

"Umm… be careful opening the door." Mary says. "It might fall apart on us."

The adults push the door open carefully, and it remains in one piece, thankfully. They then walk in, looking at the spectacular Mall, and try to see their children.

"Hmm… should we split up?" Kai asks.

"That's probably a bad idea." Nami says. "Even if one group finds them, we'll most likely be outnumbered. Let's just start searching one hallway at a time."

The others nod, and the group begins running down a random hallway.

-

"William…" Ricca begins. "There's one more question that we need to have answered."

"Yeah," Miro says, knowing what it was. "What is your real mission?"

"My mission…" William says, pausing for a moment. "…The mission that the Harvest Goddess gave to me, is to seek out and destroy-"

He suddenly cuts himself off, looking down the hall and upward, opposite the way they came. There, a dark figure had perched itself on an overhanging pipe. It was one of the shadow-things, with the small red spot of its forehead glowing the same as always.

"-that." William finishes, suddenly breaking from the group and running to it, jumping up to the pipe. The creature jumps away, however, and William pursues it down the hall.

"Come on, let's go!" Miro says, beginning to run. The rest of the group also starts running.

"There's more than one of those things, William might need help!" Ricca adds.

As they continue to run, going down the long hallway, William and the creature are lost to sight. They run faster, hoping to catch up. After running around a large decorative statue of a dead fish, they see that William had stopped. Running in his direction and halting beside him, they take a moment to catch their breath and look at him.

"Where… where did they go?" Miro asks, panting.

"I must tell you now, I did not aid you in your bowling as a favor." William says. "I did it to attract the creatures."

"That's nice and all, Will, but…" Matthew begins. "Where are they?"

William points forward for a moment, and the group looks in that direction. They all gasp in shock. There, on the top of a platform with stairs in front of them, which was probably used to showcase cars or something, were the two shadow-things. They were both standing at either side of a third person, which Miro immediately recognized.

"Hugh!" He yells.

"Get out of there, Hugh!" Lumina says. "Those things are dangerous!"

Hugh, in all of his superbly-great, muscle-loaded self, chuckles a bit at Lumina's statement.

"Why else do you think I'd have them here?" He asks, smirking.

Miro gets it immediately, and glares at him.

"So you're the one one pulling the strings on this!" He says.

"Heheheheh… Yep." Hugh says, looking quite proud of himself.

"But why? How'd you get control over them?!" Kate demands.

"Long story." Hugh says.

"We're not going anywhere." Mathew says. "I'm sure that you have time to tell us."

"There they are!" A voice from behind the group says. The adults come charging toward them, and stop just behind them.

"Come on, Miro, we're going home." Nami says.

"Mom, this is not the time…" Miro says urgently, pointing to Hugh and the shadow-creatures.

"Huh? Hugh?" Jack says. "What're you doing here?"

"He's just about to tell us." Kate says, looking back to Hugh. "Aren't you?"

"Fine, fine…" Hugh says. "But first I think you should see what my little helpers here really are…"

Hugh glances at either of the creatures, and they both comply, stepping forward a bit and dispelling the veil of darkness that covered them. Standing before them now were two people that Miro also recognized but Nami commented on before Miro could.

"M-Muffy?! Celia?!" She says in shock. Indeed, the two things in front of them were the very same disgruntled bachellorettes which tried to take Miro, Jack, and Nami out. They were extremely different now, though. They had a soulless look on their faces similar to William's, but more evil. Also, the red, glowing spot on their foreheads was a big change. The spot reminded Jack and Miro of something, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it.

"That would be them." Hugh says. "Oh, but don't bother trying to talk to them, it has full control over whatever they do."

"It?" Ricca says. "What's 'it'?"

"Now, now, let me tell the story first." Hugh says, looking at all of them. He takes in a breath.

"Back when I was a bit smaller, I noticed that Lumina was paying a whole lot more attention to Miro than to me. I thought that she'd get over him after a while, but I was wrong. Every day she'd ignore me running laps around her house, doing push-ups in her garden, bench-pressing on her piano, nothing caught her attention. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I figured that there was only one thing I could do. After I saw Celia and Muffy here get stomped by Nami, I decided to make a little plan of my own. When you two, Miro and Kate, were busy yelling at each other for hours like that, I took a little something from under your noses and gave it to these two." He points to Muffy and Celia.

Suddenly, Jack and Miro realize what those spots were. They recognized the glow immediately, and gasped in shock.

"Daachan!" They both exclaim. Nami, Kate, and Lumina gasp at this, too.

"Bingo." Hugh says in a sinister way. "Daachan wasn't dead, you see. His eyes were still intact. All that they needed was a different body. That's where the ladies here came in handy. I then told them to bring Lumina right here, as fast as they could, without her knowing, so that she could catch up with you, Miro. And now, with the help of Daachan, I can take you out. Lumina will be mine!"

Miro pauses for a moment, and then chuckles.

"I'm surprised that a jock like you could come up with a plan like that." He says. "But I beat Daachan before, and now there's a lot more of us to help out."

"Yeah, but you've got a couple of little problems." Hugh says smugly. "You don't have a gross, rotten, old sandwich to help you now. Plus, Daachan is much stronger than before, since it's been feeding off of the energy of many different things, and it's not just a teddy bear anymore."

"Feeding off of the energy…" Matthew repeats, mumbling. He turns to Miro quickly. "Miro, I think that Daachan might be the demon that the old Galen guy mentioned!"

"Hey, that's right…" Miro says.

"Correct." William says, stepping forward slightly. "It is also the demon that I have been told to slay by the Harvest Goddess. You, Hugh, have been consoling with my enemy, making it stronger. This makes you a high-priority target. I will now get rid of you."

"Ha!" Hugh says, stepping forward as well. "I'd like to see you try, Whitey!"

William dashes forward at Hugh at a blinding speed, and Hugh simply stands there, crossing his arms smugly, his eyes shut. Just before William could reach him, Muffy and Celia place themselves in front of him, grabbing William by either arm and holding him in place.

"You see?" Hugh says, opening his eyes. "Daachan told me about you. You may be tougher than a mortal like me, but can you beat these two?"

"You will not escape me." William says. "Once the demon is dealt with, I will destroy you next."

He then shuts his eyes, his entire body glowing a light blue, and a huge gust of wind blows from him, knocking Celia and Muffy away. They land on their feet, though, and prepare their weapons. Muffy flicks her wrists again, as she did in the fight with Nami, but her nails shoot out an astonishing three feet in length this time.

"Yike…" Nami mumbles. "William just might be in trouble…"

Celia also readies a weapon, causing a broom from a nearby closet to fly into her hand. This time, however, Daachan's power turns the bristles of the broom into razor-sharp blades.

Before anyone could do anything, Muffy and Celia run at William, who quickly summons up a sword of ice and dodges them, the three of them dodging, clashing weapons, and jumping off until they were out of sight.

"They'll take care of him." Hugh says.

"I swear, if they hurt William even a bit, I'm going to pound your head into powder, you evil-" Ricca begins, but she is cut off by Miro.

"Ricca, Kate, everyone…" He says, stepping forward. "Go help William."

"Wait… Miro, you're not going to do what I think you are, are you?!" Kate says in alarm. "You can't beat Hugh, he's in way better shape than you!"

"Just go." Miro repeats.

"Miro, you're not gonna win-" Kate begins to say.

"If William loses that fight, it doesn't matter who wins this one!" Miro says, turning to her and the others. "Now go!"

After a pause, the group of kids and adults nod, running off in the direction that William went. Two people who paused to turn before they went around the corner were Kate and Lumina. Kate left after a moment, but Lumina lingered for a bit longer.

"Hugh…" She mumbles. "What a nice guy, doing all of this for me." She smiles and runs off after the others.

Miro sees them go, and then looks to Hugh.

"Ah…" Hugh says. "I thought it might come to this. But don't worry, I'm more than ready to strangle you myself, you skinny loser!"

"So, what, you're going to kill me to impress Lumina?" Miro says.

"That's the plan." Hugh says, nodding.

"Have you put much thought into this…?" Miro asks. "…Oh, wait, sorry, stupid question."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Hugh snaps.

"Hugh, you're a complete jock." Miro says. "Your thought process rarely leaves the field of 'me got big muscles, me like piano lady with the big, squishy-'"

"Shut up!" Hugh says.

"Make me." Miro challenges.

"Ha!" Hugh laughs. "You kidding me? I eat crap like you for breakfast!"

They were both silent for a moment after this.

"…That's more than I needed to know, thanks." Miro says.

"Grr…" Hugh growls. He calms down a moment later, though. "Heh. You're talking big to buy yourself time before I cream you. Well guess what, Miro?" He begins walking down the steps toward him, Miro not moving.

"Time's up."


	25. Part 19, The Big Fight: Part 1: The Plug

(I'm getting pretty specific with my titles, aren't I? Well, once all of this is over, I'll have normal titles again… Yes, I'm gonna continue once it's over. I'm on a roll, I can't stop just because I should! Anyway, read on, readers!)

As Hugh continued to step towards Miro, walking down the short stairway of the platform, Miro held his ground unflinchingly. Miro kept a serious face on, showing that he was ready, serious, and trying his best to hide the fact that he was more than ready to void his bowels in panic. That would have to wait, though. As soon as Hugh was within two steps of him, Miro makes a fast, forward, ducking motion and launches his fist forward, punching squarely in the center of Hugh's stomach.

Hugh didn't even seem affected. Miro, however, quickly noticed how much his hand hurt. He felt like he had just punched a wall. Holding his hand in pain and staggering back, Miro looks at Hugh in amazement.

"'Rock hard abs' is just an EXPRESSION!" He yells. "You didn't have to go all-out and actually make them like that!"

"So's 'pencil-neck', but you've got that covered, too." Hugh replies.

Miro tilts his head a bit and feels his neck, checking the thickness of it.

"My neck's not that thin…" He says defensively.

"It will be, once I'm through with it!" Hugh exclaims, walking to Miro and giving him a fast punch in the chest. Miro is knocked off of his feet and hits the ground a short distance away.

"Oh… oww… that smarts…" He says. "Didn't break anything, at least…"

"I can fix that!" Hugh says, moving toward him. Miro was ready this time, though, and rolls out of the way just before Hugh stomped his foot down where Miro recently was. Miro takes the opportunity to get up on his feet and aim a sideways kick at him, which makes contact but also doesn't do much of anything. Hugh turns to Miro.

"Kidney shot!" He says, jabbing Miro on the side of his stomach. Miro winces and steps back, holding his side tenderly.

"Ooowwww…" He says. "That was not funny…"

Miro quickly realizes that he couldn't possibly beat Hugh like this. He needed a weapon. Unfortunately, his baseball bat was still near the main entrance, not that it ever seemed to help much…

Suddenly, something grabs his attention. Turning around, he sees a variety store or a hobby shop or something like that down the hall a short distance. Either way, it was a small store and the sign on it looked promising. 'Things that Aren't Total Crap'

"Good enough!" He says, suddenly running from Hugh and to the store.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hugh says, calmly walking the same direction. "Don't chicken out, we ain't done here yet!"

Once Hugh reaches the entrance to the shop, he walks in a little and looks around.

"Miiiiiroooo?" He calls, smirking. "Where are ya, little guy?"

A strange hissing sound could be heard to Hugh's right. He turns in that direction and sees Miro, smirking, standing next to a small, lit cannon.

"Heeeey, Hugh." Miro says calmly. "You're just in time. I've got something for you. Don't go anywhere, I'll get it to you."

Just then, the fuse of the cannon runs out, firing at Hugh. Hugh just smirks however, and clenches his stomach, making it solid enough to ricochet the cannonball off of his six-pack and back at Miro. Miro ducks, thankfully, and the ball smashes into the wall behind him.

"…WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR EXERCISE PROGRAM?!" Miro asks in shock.

"You wanna give that another try?" Hugh asks smugly.

"…You'll give me a free shot?" Miro asks.

"Sure, but it's the last favor I'll ever do for you." Hugh says.

"…Okay, fine…" Miro says, smirking. He pushes the cannon to a slightly different angle, straining and groaning as he does so, and uses a pen and paper that he finds on a small nearby table to calculate the angles, the wind speed caused by air conditioning, and the velocity of the cannonball.

"…You done yet?" Hugh asks.

"Hmm… Yep." Miro says, putting the paper away and loading the cannon again. He lights the fuse and waits for it to run out.

"Tch, I thought you'd at least try something new." Hugh says, smirking and clenching his stomach muscles again. The cannon fires, once again bouncing off of Hugh's abs.

"Ha! You moron, it didn't work!" Hugh says, laughing.

"But wait. I'm not quite done." Miro says, a smirk on his face now. "I did try something new."

Hugh suddenly notices something. When the ball had ricocheted back, it went at a different angle, as Miro calculated. This time the ball had whizzed over top, and lit the fuse of another, much larger cannon, which unfortunately was pointed right at Hugh.

"I don't care how many sit-ups you've done this morning, this one's gonna hurt!" Miro says. The cannon fires, sending a very large cannonball directly at Hugh, which impacts very hard and sends him a distance out of the shop. He remained lying there for a moment, the large cannonball still on top of him, and grumbles a bit.

Miro walks outside of the shop as well, looking at him.

"You done?" He asks.

"Heheheh…" Hugh says, grabbing the cannonball and lifting it off of himself. "Lucky shot, Miro. Too bad it's not enough." He stands up fully, the cannonball held over his head. He throws it at Miro, which Miro dodges.

"I'm starting to run out of bright ideas…" Miro mumbles to himself.

-

Meanwhile, William continues to trade blows with Muffy and Celia, moving too quickly for the others to really help at all. William summons some roots from the ground, which lash out at the two, but Muffy slices them into stubs with her huge claws. Celia then charges William with her broom, but he deflects it with a hastily-made wall of ice.

"…How exactly are we supposed to help out?" Kai asks, the entire group huddled in one corner of the hall.

"I don't know, Miro wasn't very specific, was he?" Kate says.

"No…" Matthew says in agreement. "I doubt if we could do much, but let's keep watching just in case."

"'Kay." Anna says. And so they continue to watch.

William ducks under one of Muffy's slashes and jumps to avoid another. He quickly throws his ice sword down at her, which she quickly dodges. William notices that he was in the middle of an opening to the second floor of the Mall, one of those holes in the middle of the floor that are surrounded by a railing so that stupid people don't accidentally fall from the second floor to the ground floor. He takes advantage of this by summoning a root from his own hand to shoot out and cling to the railing. He then yanks his arm to throw himself up to the second floor.

"Wow, I didn't know that he could do that to his own body…" Matthew says. "He probably doesn't do it often for fear of damaging himself."

"How are we going to get up there?!" Cliff asks.

"We don't have to, now that William's out of the way, we can go at Celia and Muffy ourselves!" Nami says, drawing her knives and running toward the two.

"Are you nuts?!" Jack says, quickly catching up to her and grabbing her shoulder to stop her. "They're tougher than you now!"

"I fought them before, I know the most about what they can do." Nami says.

"Maybe, but they MIGHT have learned a few new things between then and now." Jack adds.

Celia turns to look at the two, broom at the ready. Daachan sensed that Celia had anger for Nami, so it decided to switch targets momentarally. Aiming the bladed bristles of the broom at them, Daachan's power causes them to shoot off of the broom in a big swarm. Nami and Jack's eyes widen, and they throw themselves to the ground just before the blades passed over them. The rest of the group behind them do the same, however, some were a bit less successful in dodging. Gray and Jack from Mineral Town duck down so quickly that their hats are left behing in mid-air, and are skewered by the blades and pinned to the wall behind them. Some of Popuri's hair is cut shorter by the passing blades, and Cliff is pinned to the wall by his clothes by a few very close-to-hitting blades.

"You see?!" Jack says.

"Yes, that proved your point…" Nami admits.

The group behind them gets up slowly, sighing in relief and checking themselves for damage.

"Can somebody… gimme a hand… please?" Cliff says, looking around at them.

"Oh, of course, dear." Elli says, beginning to pull the blades from the wall and free Cliff.

"Oh, your hair's cut!" Kai says, seeing Popuri.

"Oh, no…" Popuri says, checking her hair. "Well… It's not too bad. I could tie it back or…" She gasps, looking at Kai suddenly.

"What?" Kai asks. "What, is my bandanna out of place?"

"Kai, there's a blade in your HEAD!" She says, pointing. Kai looks up at it. There it was, stuck in the right side of his head.

"Oh, so there is…" Kai says calmly. "No worries, I don't usually use that side of my brain."

"Are you sure?" Popuri asks.

"Yep." Kai says. "I use that side for math and stuff. Wait, I'll try thinking of different things just in case…"

_Hmm… Dogs, puppies, horses, seafood, kelp, ice cream… nothing so far, that's good. Umm… Home, family, Ricca- ohh, I felt a twinge... Odd. Better keep going. Umm, Cliff, Jack, Grey, the Inn, porridge… mmm, porridge. Hmm… Say, Popuri's not looking too bad toda- OWW! …My brain just hurt… Oh well. Hmm… Man, I can't wait 'till this is all over so I can take Popuri downstairs and- OWW! …Oh no…_

"NO!" Kai yells, frantically trying to pull the blade out of his head. "NOT THAT PART! I NEED THAT PART!"

"What part?" Popuri asks.

"I'm guessing that that part of his brain isn't just for math." Gray mumbles, pulling the blades from his hat and putting it back on. "They'd better not get away with this. This is my favorite hat…"

The previously-hatted-but-now-hatless Jack also busies himself by pulling the blades from his hat and un-sticking it from the wall. Everyone quickly noticed that Jack's previously-uplifted tuft of hair was now draped over half of his face.

"Why did that happen…?" Cliff asks.

"I think I know…" Mary says, inspecting Jack for a moment. "Jack's hat must keep his hair held up. When he puts his hat on, the pressure it exerts on his skull must allow his hair to hang unrealistically in mid-air like it does."

Jack shrugs, pulling the last blade out and placing his hat back on his head. Immediately, his hair tuft bounced back to it's usual self.

"Wow…" Elli says. "It looks like you're right, Mary."

"I thought so." Mary says, crossing her arms in triumph.

Celia, meanwhile, had turned her attention back to William. The handle of her broom no longer had blade-bristles, since she had shot them off, so she threw it away and caused another broom to come to her from a nearby closet. This one she also made the bristles of into a collection of blades.

Jack and Nami, finally standing back up, think for a moment. Nami suddenly gets an idea.

"Jack, she needs to get a new broom every time she does that!" Nami says. "We can stop her this way!"

"How?" Jack asks.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Nami asks.

"Umm…" Jack begins.

-

Inside of Jack's mind, his phyche tries desperately to think up an answer to Nami's question. Three mini-Jacks scribble desperately on a stand, with Jeopardy music playing in the background. Once the music stops, the three stop writing, looking nervous. The first one reveals its answer to be 'What is Throw Potatoes at Her?' A buzzer sounds, indicating that he was wrong. A trapdoor opens beneath him and he falls into the eternal void of Jack's mind. The second one gulps, and reveals his answer: 'What is Eat an Omelet?' The buzzer sounds again, and that Jack falls into the darkness below. The third, sweating nervously, reveals his answer. 'What is Lock All of the Closets?' This time, a bell chimes, and the third Jack jumps around happily.

-

"Umm…" Jack repeats. "…What is lock all of the closets?"

"…Sort of." Nami says, wondering why Jack had answered in the form of a question. "But yes, we have to lock the closets. Let's go, people!"

The group scattered out, trying to find all of the closets in the area and barricade them so that the brooms couldn't escape. Meanwhile, William was busy fighting the two possessed ladies, since they had jumped up to the second floor, too. He was looking like he was being more defensive than offensive now. He got very little time to react between Muffy and Celia's attacks, and the two were synchronized with their movements since they were controlled by Daachan's single consciousness. William had to back off for a moment, and so he did, clearing the large gap on the floor with a jump. Turning to the two, he holds his arms out and causes the right half of himself to glow red, the other half blue. After focusing his power for a bit, he summons an ever-advancing column of ice spikes jutting from the ground on his left side, and a large slew of fireballs from his right. He directs these both to proceed around the gap in the floor, cornering Muffy and Celia in between them. Celia and Muffy, however, jump across the gap before the two attacks could reach them. William had planned for this, and jumps back to the side where Muffy and Celia just were, also jumping into the middle of the two attacks clashing together. It looked as though he would be hurt by it, but when the steam cleared, he was standing there, with the remaining ice, fire, and the water left over from the attacks clashing hovering above him in separate groups. He then moved his hands forward in a pushing motion and the three things all launched forward, across the gap, toward Muffy and Celia. They all contacted together in a crushing heap, and a huge amount of steam rose into the air, obscuring the view of what had happened.

William remained still, other than letting his arms fall to his sides, and waited for the steam to clear. It looked to him like it had worked just as planned, he was sure that the demon hadn't gotten out of the way. Not many things could have, it had all happened very quickly. Nevertheless, he prepared himself by summoning up a wooden poleaxe with an ice blade. He continued to wait, until finally the steam all wafted away. There was nothing. Nothing at all, not even the demon's hosts. Suddenly, William senses something behind him and turns around, seeing Muffy and Celia above him, hanging from the roof. Muffy jumps down at him, making a vertical slashing motion, and William attempts to block by holding his weapon above his head, but Muffy slices it into pieces with her claws. William steps back as Muffy gets up, and Celia uses the same move she had used on the group below, shooting the blades from her broom. William summons a sheet of ice to block them, but three passed through it and went into his right arm. His eye twitches, and he staggers back to the very edge of the gap, leaning back on the railing. Calmly, he looks at his arm and pulls the blades out one by one, throwing them over the edge.

As the group below them continues to barricade the closets, Ricca hears a clink on the ground like something being thrown down. Looking in the direction of it, she sees two blades on the ground, a third one falling down right next to them, each tipped with a bit of blood. Ricca looks up to the second story, and sees William there, his right arm gouged in three areas about the same size as the blades. Not being nearly as clueless as her parents, Ricca knew what had happened right away.

"William!" She yells. "Guys, William's in trouble!"

The rest of the group leave their barricades behind and look, seeing this as well. They run up to where Ricca was and group together, backing up to the opposite wall so that they could have a better view of what was going on.

"What should we do?" Elli asks.

"…I have a plan." Ricca says quickly. "You," She points at Jack. "Go look for…"

-

Hugh, grinning evilly, lifts up a nearby bench, tearing it right from the Mall floor, and throws it at Miro. Miro dodges, barely, by ducking under it, and it passes over him.

"H… How can you do that?!" Miro asks, getting back up to his feet.

"I work out, which is where I've got the advantage 'cause you have no muscles." Hugh says. He picks up a large, potted plant next and gets ready to throw it. Miro takes quick action and spits on the soles of his own shoes, adding traction by doing so, and when Hugh throws the plant, Miro moves out of the way and grabs the plant by its stalk, using its momentum to swing it around and throw it back to Hugh. The plant hits him dead-center in the chest and he staggers back a bit, groaning.

"How'd you know that would work?!" Hugh asks angrily.

"I read it in a book, which is where I've got the advantage 'cause you can't read." Miro says.

Hugh runs at him, swinging a fist, which Miro dodges. He moves behind Hugh and kicks him in the back. Once again, it did absolutely nothing and Miro's leg suffers a painful recoil from that attempt. However, before Miro could move his foot back so that he could hold it and start jumping up and down in pain, Hugh turns and grabs Miro's leg. He then starts swinging Miro around, faster and faster, and then throws him down the hall. Miro lands on his back, sliding a small distance.

Miro quickly recovers from his dizziness and looks around to where he was. He notices that he was outside of the store he had found the cannons in.

"…Well, it's worth another shot." He says, getting up and running inside. He takes a bow and a quiver of arrows from a display and gets it ready. He runs out of the shop and turns to where Hugh was, drawing an arrow back on the bowstring.

"One more step and I'll shove an arrow into every hole in your body, maybe I'll even add a few of my own!" Miro warns, shutting one eye to aid his aiming.

Hugh pauses for a second, and then smirks, chuckling.

"Heh, yeah, like you can just pick up any weapon and suddenly be pro at it!" He says incredulously, laughing at the thought.

Miro's opened eye narrows and he lets the string go, the arrow whizzing at Hugh and sticking into his chest. Hugh stops laughing a second after this occurs and looks down at it.

"…OWW!" He says, putting his hands near the arrow but not daring to pull it out. "DAMMIT, OWW! HOW'D YOU… G… OWW!"

He looks down the hall, where Muffy and Celia had gone.

"HEY, GIMME A HAND, HERE!" He calls down.

-

Celia and Muffy, who were about to strike at William again, sense Hugh's distress and turn their heads to the hall they had come from. The eyes of Daachan glow very strongly for a moment and a strange sparkle emanates from them. The sparkle travels down the hall and toward Hugh, Muffy and Celia look back at William, and Daachan's eyes go back to their regular sheen.

-

Miro sees a small group of glowing red… somethings, travelling down the hall and toward Hugh. When they reach Hugh, they go to the spot where the arrow was stuck in, and travel into Hugh's body. The spot around the arrow glowed the same reddish colour for a moment, and Hugh didn't seem to be in pain anymore. He pulls the arrow out easily, and throws it aside. Surprisingly, the wound heals itself almost instantly, not a trace of it remaining.

"That is… SO not fair!" Miro protests. He thinks for a moment, and decides to throw the bow and quiver away. Miro runs back into Things that Aren't Total Crap and looks around.

At the other end of the store, he notices a sword display in glass cases with labels on each of them. He runs over to it and looks at them all.

"Let's see… Masamune, too long, Master Sword, too short, Soul Edge, too… gross, umm… Gunblade, Lionheart, Chaos Breaker, Buster Sword, Keyblade… meh, why not?" Miro says, seeing the odd weapon in a display case. He raises up an elbow and brings it down on the glass case. It didn't shatter. Miro's elbow, on the other hand…

"Yeowww…" Miro says, holding his elbow and wincing. He quickly notices something. Rolling his eyes, he places his hands on the sides of the glass case and lifts it up, quickly throwing the glass away. Grinning in anticipation, he spits on his hand, rubs his hands together, and reaches for the handle of the weapon. As soon as he had wrapped his fingers around the handle, he falls victim to an electric shock in his hand and immediately lets go.

"Ahhhhh… Owwowwowwowwoww…" Miro says to himself, holding his hand. "Why the hell did that happen…?"

"_You are not the true wielder of the Keyblade…_" A mysterious voice from nowhere states. Miro looks around, confused.

"What? Says who?" Miro says stubbornly.

"_Destiny calls for the true wielder…_"

"Yeah? Well I think he missed the call, 'cause don't see the 'true wielder' here, do you? Huh?" Miro challenges.

"_Only the true wielder may use the power of the Keyblade…_"

"…And what would the 'true wielder' be?" Miro asks.

"_The true wielder shall wear funny clothes and have many, many licensing rights…_"

"Well… I guess I could wear the funny clothes."

"_It would not matter, you are not the wielder…_"

"Oh, right… Hmm… Say, what if I made you a deal?"

"…_I'm listening…_"

"How 'bout I borrow it, give over 50g collateral, and I promise I'll bring it back in perfect condition?"

"…_Make it 150, and you have yourself a deal…_"

"150?! This had better be a good weapon!" Miro says.

"_It locks the hearts of enemies…_"

"'Locks hearts'?! That's a stupid power!"

"_No it isn't… Have you ever had a heart locked…?_"

"No."

"_Well, it stings slightly…_"

"OH, it stings slightly!" Miro says mockingly, turning away. "Y'know what? Forget it. I liked the look of that Buster Sword back there…"

"_Wait!_"

"What?" Miro says, turning back.

"_The Keyblade is truly a powerful weapon, it has slain many dark forces before now..._"

"How many?"

"…_A lot…_"

Miro sighs. "Whatever, fine." He says, reaching for the weapon again. It gives him another shock, and he yells in pain.

"Ow! What's the big deal?!" Miro asks angrily.

"_You must first make two decisions… Turn around…_"

Miro shrugs, turning around and waiting. Suddenly, three stones with a sword, a shield, and a staff appeared in front of him.

"_If you give it form… it will give you strength. Choose well…_"

"Sure, how about I pick the stick so I can club you to death?!" Miro says impatiently. "Cut this crap, I'm in a hurry!"

"_Psh, fine. Just leave the money at the table and take the stupid thing…_"

The three stones vanish and Miro starts fiddling with his pockets until he pulls out 150g. He places it beside the Keyblade and picks the weapon up, glad to not receive a shock this time. He notices a little chain on the end of the weapon's handle.

"Huh, well that's handy." He says. "A keychain so I don't lose it."

"Hey, Miro! Ready to be creamed?!" Hugh says, entering the store.

"Heh, you have no idea what you're up against now." Miro says, holding the weapon in two hands and pointing it to him.

"…Ha!" Hugh laughs. "What stupid excuse for a sword is that?"

"You wanna find out?" Miro challenges. "C'mon, I'll shove this up your Keyhole and unlock ya!"

"…How about no?" Hugh says. He holds one hand out. "Daachan gave me this little thing. I hope you'll like it."

A strange glow emanated from Hugh's hand suddenly, and it shaped and formed itself into a weapon. Not just any magically-summoned weapon, either. This weapon was the absolute coolest-looking dark, sinister, 1 or 2-handed sword that either of them had ever seen.

"Check it out." Hugh says, swinging it nonchalantly. "It's called… the Soul Irritant!"

"…Soul… Irritant?" Miro repeats.

"Yep. Here's a sample for ya." Hugh says, running up to Miro and slicing it quickly across Miro's chest. It didn't cut him, strangely, but Miro began to hear a blaring noise in his head more annoying than the day that Kate replaced his shampoo with itching cream. Stepping back, Miro cringes and the noise slowly subsides.

"Aagh… Wow, that is irritating…" Miro says.

"Yep, and with one good stab, I can pluck your soul right out and feed its energy to Daachan!" Hugh proclaims.

"Too bad that's not happening. Daachan won't be getting any lunch today, I just hope he's not gonna be too disappointed." Miro says, holding his weapon in a fighting stance. "Now let's do this."

Meanwhile, back in the hallway a short distance away, Jack looks around for the thing Ricca had ordered him to find. Hearing a commotion from a nearby shop, Jack decides to look around over there. He enters the shop and finds Miro and Hugh busy trading blows with one another, locked in epic combat.

"Oh, hey Dad." Miro says in the middle of the fight, not stopping.

"Hi, Miro." Jack says, walking farther into the store. "Say, do you know where there's a big slingshot around here?"

"Yeah, I think I saw one over in that corner shelf." Miro replies, ducking under a vertical swing from Hugh.

"Oh, okay…" Jack says, beginning to walk to the corner.

"Nonono, the other corner." Hugh corrects him, blocking an attack from Miro and striking back.

"Oh, alright." Jack says, walking to a different corner. There, he finds a very-much-oversized slingshot and heaves it up onto his shoulder. On the way out, he ducks under a random sword slash from one of them.

"Whoops, watch it, now." Jack warns, continuing to walk and passing the exit. He turns back for a second. "…Don't you two hurt yourselves."

"Don't worry." Miro says.

"We won't hurt _ourselves_." Hugh adds.

"Alright then." Jack says, proceeding to walk back to the rest of the group.

-

"Okay, now we just need to wait for Jack." Ricca says, looking intently at the scene a floor above them. William was no longer leaning on the rail, and stood in front of Muffy and Celia. He summons a flaming root-blade attatched to his arm just like he had done before in the woods, and lunges at them with it. They both dodge to either side and Muffy begins attacking him. Celia stays back for a while and attempts to summon up another broom. However, the closets were all barricaded and the brooms couldn't pass the doors.

"There's thumping in the closet." Ann says, looking to a closet nearby.

"Wouldn't have been the first time this week." Ricca says, having been informed of what Miro was still probably clueless about.

"What?" Ann asks.

"Nothing!" Matthew says immediately. "Anyway, it seems that our barricades are working perfectly. This should make the fight easier for William."

Easier it was, but William still had a challenge to deal with. Celia, in light of the lack of brooms flying into her hand, remains holding the handle and decides to just fight with it. Muffy backs away from William suddenly, letting her clawed hands fall to her sides. William wonders for a moment why this had happened, and remains in a fighting stance and pauses for a moment. He knew that the demon was waiting for him to drop his guard, and he would not fall for it. William begins to lunge at Muffy, but failed to notice Celia behind him, and she trips him using her broom handle. As William tried to get up, Celia hits him over the head with it and causes him to fall again. She then places his arms behind him, puts the stick between his arms and his back, and hauls him up with it, pinning his arms to herself so that he couldn't break free. Not that he could, really, the strike on the head by Celia's broom handle had left him dazed. Muffy suddenly lifts her arms up again and points all of her nails to William.

Ricca sees this and gasps.

"William's in trouble!" She says.

"Where's Jack?" Nami asks.

"I'm here! I'm coming!" Jack says, running as fast as he could with the weight of the huge slingshot on his shoulder. Once he reaches them, he places it vertically on the ground, balancing it.

"Good, now quickly…" Ricca says, finding a nearby gumball machine and kicking it over, the cover breaking and the gumballs scattering all over. "Take as many as your mouth will hold! Hurry!"

The rest of the group nods, and pick up handfuls of gumballs, placing them in their mouths.

"Chew! Chew, dammit!" Ricca orders, seeing Muffy pulling her arms back, ready to strike. The group began chewing their gum as fast as they could, many of their jaws cramping up, but continuing regardless.

"Good!" Ricca says, holding out her hands. "Now spit! Don't worry, I'm wearing gloves!"

The group nods and they all spit their chewed gum into Ricca's hands, making a huge, singular hunk of it. Ricca, cringing a bit, places the gum in the arm of the slingshot.

"Okay, now help me pull!" She says. The two Jacks hold onto the slingshot's handle, and the rest of them help Ricca by pulling back the sling. They strained at it as hard and as fast as they could, until the elastic was pulled back as far as it could be.

Muffy suddenly jumps forward at William, ready to skewer him into bish-kabob.

"Fire!" Ricca orders, the entire group releasing the slingshot and sending the projectile gum right to the upper floor. It hits its mark at the perfect time, smacking into the side of Muffy's head as she pounced and pinning her to the wall by her hair.

"Ooh… I almost feel sorry for her." Nami says.

"That won't come out with one shower…" Popuri adds.

Muffy attempts to free herself from the wall, but she was stuck without a hope of getting out. William finally regains himself and noticed what happened. He looked down at the group below.

"I will thank you later." He says, at a normal volume but somehow they could hear his voice clearly. He headbutts Celia with the back of his head, causing her to release him, and he turns to face her.

"Just be sure to get out of there!" Ricca states. "You've almost got them!"

William looks at Celia, noticing that she still had her blank expression, seemed a bit injured but could continue fighting to her fullest thanks to Daachan's power, and the eye of Daachan on her forehead glowing no weaker than it previously was.

"I doubt it…" William mutters.

(Ooh, this is gonna get good! And just to tell you, I know that William's probably not technically a bishounnen due to the lack of feelings that he has, but I couldn't resist the 'bish-kabob' line, it was just TOO GOOD! …Yes, I know that I have no life. Anyway, don't forget to review!)


	26. Part 20: Part 2: It's Never That Easy

(Hello, there! I'm very sorry for the delay, but I was busy working on a Fic that was just recently started. It's a co-production between myself and two other authors, called Shades of Life…which I'm sure that most of you simply _forgot_ to review. But don't worry, it's right there where you left it. And trust me, it's a neat read. You can go ahead and check it out as soon as you're done here. Don't forget to review before you go!)

Miro and Hugh are busy in the midst of trading fierce blows between each other. Miro was surprised at how nimble his weapon, the Keyblade was, but it really didn't seem all that great for landing hits. Of course, it wasn't the weapon that was to blame for that, it was the fact that whenever Hugh ever presented an opening, he managed to block it. However, Miro not wanting to blame himself for this, he steps back a safe distance and looks around for another weapon. Hugh lunges at him, but Miro dodges out of the way and continues to look around.

"What're you doing?" Hugh asks.

"I want to try double-handed." Miro says. "I think I need quantity to help me out."

"Well, you ain't getting it if I have anything to say!" Hugh says, taking a horizontal swing at Miro. Miro was right next to another glass display case and, when Hugh swung, he broke the case's glass. Miro notices something within the case and picks it up with his free hand before distancing himself from Hugh once again.

"Tch, what's that, a sword or something that you pulled off of a gargoyle?" Hugh asks sarcastically. Miro looks at the weapon. It did look odd, and the tag on it said 'Soul Eater'. Miro had never heard of it, but it did look neater and sharper than his current weapon. He held each of the weapons in one hand, and looked at Hugh.

"How do you like me now?" He asks, holding both of the weapons in a fighting stance. Suddenly, he feels different for a moment. His arms suddenly stretch out to either side, leaving him wide open to attack, but Hugh seems preoccupied watching what was happening to him. Miro couldn't let go of the weapons, and they were pulling him to the point that he feared he would be pulled apart. And so he was, kind of. He was coated in a white light for a moment, and Hugh covers his eyes, unable to look directly at it.

Finally, when the light dissipated, Miro found that he could move again. He also found that he was unarmed. He looked around for his weapons, and gasped when he saw where they had gone.

Standing to his right, holding the Keyblade, was himself. This self, however, looked to be at peace with everything, and looked relaxed and happy, and had slightly fuller, kind-of-pointier red hair. To Miro's left, holding the other weapon, was another version of him… well, 'him' in a sense, but this version was actually female, with slightly longer hair than him.

"…Okay, this is getting stupid." Miro says, looking at either of them.

"You said you wanted quantity." The female Miro says, shrugging.

"This is NOT what I meant!" Miro protests. "Having my essence split into three wasn't exactly what I had in mind!"

"Well, it's what you got, so live with it." The female Miro snaps impatiently.

"Well… What parts of me are you, exactly?" Miro asks.

"Your mother's side and your father's side." The peaceful-looking Miro says. "And may I say, it is good to be free again…"

"Oh no, not you!" Miro says. "You must be… You're the freak who takes over every time Kate and I…"

"And I'm the part that tries to keep that from happening. Call me Mira." The female Miro, now known as Mira, explains. "And now that he's finally out in the open, we can kill him!"

"Nay, nay, that would be a poor decision…" The peaceful Miro says. "Without me, you would be just like your mother."

"AAH!" Miro shouts, holding his heart. "Okay… good point. We need you to fight, anyway."

"Fight? I do not fight for senseless reasons." The other Miro says, shaking his head.

"Senseless?" Miro repeats. "It's not senseless! He's going to kill us to impress Lumina! It's him who's being senseless!"

"It's still a senseless reason." Peaceful-Miro says.

"But it's HIM who's being senseless!" Miro states, pointing at Hugh, who was shocked at first, but was now just patiently waiting for them to quit talking.

"Which makes the fight based on a senseless reason…"

"But not in our part, on his! We're fighting to defend ourselves, making our part the one that makes sense!"

"But wouldn't defending ourselves based on self-protection from someone who is fighting us for a senseless reason make our reason for fighting that person also senseless?"

"…NO! That's not how it works!" Miro says in frustration.

Mira, beginning to grow bored of this, leaves the group and begins walking to Hugh.

"How about you two come to a decision while I hold him off?" She asks.

"Just you?" Miro asks, turning to her.

"I'll be plenty." Mira reassures them. "Now that I'm not held back by anything, and I have this neat sword, Hugh's the one who will need help."

"You kidding me?" Hugh asks, smirking. "I'll take you on, no sweat."

"You sure about that?" Mira asks, holding her weapon at a ready stance.

"…Heh, you're kinda cute." Hugh admits.

"**Watch it**!" Miro and Mira both snap.

"I'm part of him, remember that." Mira says. "Now, I hope you're ready to lose a lot of blood."

"How can someone be ready to lose blood?" Miro asks, looking at his peaceful counterpart. The other Miro shrugs.

-

William, still armed with his flaming-gauntlet-root-blade thing, observes Celia to think up the best course of action.

"…The demon's host seems weakened, but the demon itself seems about as strong as it previously was…" William mutters to himself. "However, due to its present lack of weaponry and effective attacks, I should still be able to defeat it."

Just then, Celia raised both of her hands up, broom handle still in one, and Daachan's eye began to glow very brightly again. The many small broom-blades scattered about begin to rattle slightly, the one still lodged in Kai's head making him very uncomfortable, and then that one pulls itself out from him, the rest of them suddenly beginning to hover in the air, and all of them grouping together in front of Celia.

"…Correction, she still has effective attacks." William says to himself. Just then, all of the blades come rushing at him in a huge swarm. William summons a sheet of ice in front of him to block them. Thankfully, all of the blades stick into it and William is unhurt. He then jumps over the ice, toward Celia. Celia runs underneath him as he jumped and pointed her broomstick toward the ice sheet. The blades embedded in it pull themselves out and re-attach themselves to Celia's broomstick. There were now two brooms' worth of blades pointing out at all angles on the front of Celia's broomstick, making a mace-like weapon.

Celia dashes to William and swings the weapon. William jumps over it and tries to strike her with his weapon. Celia, however, blocks it with the broom handle and pushes William back. William staggers, but regains himself and pauses for a moment.

Nami, down below, watches this and is reminded of her fight with Celia.

"William!" She calls. "Get the weapon away from her, it's the only thing that she's good with! She can't hand-fight worth crap!"

William heard this and decides to try applying it. When Celia struck at him vertically, William grabs the broom handle, cutting his forearm slightly but not anything major, and yanks it from her grasp, throwing it over the edge. He then quickly focuses and encases the broom in a block of ice before it hits the ground, the broom shattering along with the ice once it does. William then took quick action and swung his blade at Celia before she could do anything, the weapon striking just close enough to her forehead to knock Daachan's eye off. The eye falls to the ground with a 'clink', whilst the now-unposessed, stunned Celia falls to the ground with a 'thunk'.

"…It is done." William says.

"William! Everything okay up there!" Ricca asks, not at the right angle to see everything. William turns and looks at Ricca, placing himself within sight.

"The demon has been dealt with, my mission is compl-" William begins to say. He is suddenly cut off, however. His eyes widen slightly and his mouth ramains partially open.

"No… William!" Ricca shouts in panic, seeing what had happened.

William slowly looks down at himself, seeing three of Muffy's claws protruding from his stomach. He had forgotten that the demon's other host was so close by, as was the wall that she was stuck to. Slowly, trying not to shift too much, William turns his head to see Muffy. With a quick swing, he strikes the demon's eye off of her forehead as well. Muffy's nails return back to their normal size, and Muffy falls limp, held up by the gum in her hair.

Allowing himself to fall to his knees, William bends slightly and holds one arm over his stomach. He begins breathing heavily, as most people who get run through by three very sharp objects are prone to do. Also quite present was a reasonable amount of blood collecting on his shirt and staining it beyond the hope of only needing a single run through the washing machine to clean off, to Elli's dismay. The fact that her son had just been skewered by three long fingernails was also a pretty big concern…

"Are you okay!" Ricca asks worriedly. It would seem, to most people, to be an obvious 'no', but after the punishment that William endured courtesy of Ricca, she knew that he could handle quite a bit of pain… at least now.

"I… will recover…" William says, straining a bit to speak. "I can heal… myself… but it will take time…"

"Okay…" Ricca says uncertainly.

"We'll come and get you as soon as we've taken care of Hugh!" Kate says.

The group, hesitantly at first, runs back to where they had come from, leaving William to take care of himself. Ricca glances back once, and quickly turns her head forward again. They continue to run until they turn a corner, seeing Hugh and someone who they assumed was Miro fighting each other outside of a store with bladed weapons. When they got closer, however, they noticed something very strange. For one, they quickly discovered that the person fighting Hugh was a strange, female, Nami-esque version of Miro, and another thing was that, standing just outside of the entrance, was what looked to be Miro again, and again… Two Miros standing there, watching the proceedings.

Mira ducks under a swing from Hugh, and manages to nick him across the cheek with her blade. Hugh steps back, his eyes narrowing, a small cut visible on his face now. Suddenly, he noticed the entire group behind him. The two combatants stop what they were doing.

The peaceful Miro looks to the group in front of him and noticed a particular someone in it.

"Kate, my sweet!" He says, running to her and locking her in a hug before anyone could make a response. Kate looked rather agitated by this, her eyes wide open and an eyebrow twitching. After a moment, she grabs Miro by the face with one hand and throws him off of her.

"You ever hear of '_parents are watching_'?" She asks through clenched teeth.

"Let them watch, for they can never see it all. It is eternal!" Peaceful-Miro exclaims, running to Kate again. Kate stops him by holding a fist out and allowing him to run into it. He falls to the ground, mercifully unconscious. Kate puts her hand back down and clears her throat.

"…What the heck is going on!" She asks, looking from Hugh to the three different versions of Miro.

"…Long story." Miro and Mira say.

"Basically, I grabbed two opposite swords and their power split my essence into three." Miro says, shrugging.

"…Oh, that makes sense out of _everything_." Ricca says, rolling her eyes.

"It makes more sense than your choice of hair dye." Mira remarks, still keeping an eye on Hugh.

"…Excuse me?" Ricca asks, narrowing her eyes. "I'll have you know, this is a natural pink."

"Yes, and your choice of not using hair dye is what makes no sense." Mira continues. "Slather on a layer of some colour that we can look at without our eyes stinging, for all of our sakes."

"You are getting on my last nerve…" Ricca says, her teeth clenched.

"Which? The one attached to your brain?" Mira remarks.

"**If Hugh doesn't get to you first**-" Ricca begins, having to be held back by the people behind her.

"Speaking of which, have you noticed yet that you've lost, Hugh?" Miro says smugly, walking to him and standing next to Mira.

"Heheh…" Hugh chuckles, looking peculiarly smug for someone in his position. "Now, now, don't jump the gun, Miro. I knew that the ladies might not be enough to get rid of everyone, but I also knew that they'd be enough to take care of Whitey. Am I right?"

"His name is William…" Ricca growls acidly to him.

"Whatever." Hugh says, shrugging. "Anyway, I think you should know that I haven't 'lost', like I know you think I have."

"Yeah?" Miro replies. "And what do you think you know that would make you think to say that you think we should know that you haven't 'lost', like you know we think we have, do you think?"

"Easy." Hugh says. "I took a little something from Romana to make sure my plans are done, even if Muffy and Celia mess up."

"Oh yeah? What would that be?" Kate asks.

Hugh chuckles and looks to them in a sinister way, an evil smile playing on his face.

"Sewing classes."

-

William, meanwhile, was still crouched down, busy trying to heal himself and keep as much of his inside fluids inside as he could. If he lost too much blood, he could still bite it, even if he healed his body. He suddenly senses something very strange, and looks around for it. After a moment, he sees what it was. Daachan's eyes were beginning to float in mid-air, and were going to make their escape. Getting up as quickly as his body would allow, William dove for one of the eyes, but it shot away from him too quickly. William landed hard on the ground, and remained there for a few moments before getting back up to a crouching position, breathing heavily again.

_It is no use…_ He thinks to himself. _The demon has escaped me… If I tried to pursue, I would not live long enough to do anything… It is up to them now… to destroy it…_

-

As the group watched, waiting for Hugh's plan to take action (which is quite a stupid idea, if one were to think about it…), Daachan's eyes fly toward him. Hugh holds his hands out and catches one in each hand. Smirking, he looks toward a shop with a very, very tall entrance, across from Things That Aren't Total Crap, and begins walking to it.

"…Hey, how about 'no'?" Ricca says, the brilliant idea of stopping Hugh from doing whatever it was he had planned crossing her mind. She, Nami, Miro, and Mira start running to Hugh, ready to stop him. However, Hugh turns to them quickly, holding out his palms and revealing Daachan's eyes. They emit a strong shockwave which knock the approaching four flat on their backs.

"Don't try to ruin the moment!" Hugh says accusingly, turning away from them and continuing to walk. Once he had reached it, he walked in and toward a light switch. The shop had no lights currently on, so no one could see very far inside it. Once Hugh had turned the lights on, however, they all gasped in amazement.

At the far end of the small store, leaning against the wall facing toward them, was a huge, stitched-together thing that looked to be made from many different things. Stuffed things. Things like stuffed animals, pillows, small mattresses, and other such things. All of this was carefully thrown together to create a gigantic… teddy bear, easily 10 feet tall. The only think missing on it; the eyes.

"Guess who's back?" Hugh says, smirking. "Take this new body and flatten these guys, Daachan!"

With that, he throws Daachan's eyes up to the huge stuffed bear. The eyes place themselves on the huge creation's face, right where the eyes should be. However, they did look quite small compared to the rest of the body.

Slowly, the huge bear comes to life, its arm twitching, and then its head moving around. Finally, its gaze fixes itself on the group in front of it. Its legs begin to move, the creature slowly starting to walk toward them.

"…Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…" Matthew mutters, him and everyone else backing away from it.

"Guys…" Miro begins.

"What? 'Go help William'?" Kate says sarcastically.

"No. Just run." Miro says.

"We're not leaving you, you idiot!" Kate says.

"You can't possibly beat it and Hugh!" Ricca adds in. The others in the group nod in general agreement with this.

"Well, of course not." Miro says. "I just need you to lure it away and beat it."

"Oh, okay then." Anna says. A moment later, however, they all look at him.

"…You want us to lure FrankenDaachan away, somehow defeat it, and hope that you can do the same with Hugh?" Nami asks.

"…Yep." Miro says.

Nami pauses for a moment, and then smiles proudly.

"…You're a man now, Miro." She says.

"Just like your mother." Jack adds, almost instantly receiving another crack to his already mosaic-like skull.

"…But how are we going to do that?" Cliff asks.

"Well, what are large, evil creatures usually lured by?" Mary asks.

"Screaming and running?" Matthew suggests.

"Yeah, that'll work!" Kai says.

"No problem for me." The hatted Jack says. "I was gonna do it, anyway."

"Yes, that sort of thing comes quite naturally in a situation like this…" Gray says.

"Okay. Well, we all know what to do…" Nami says, the rest of them nodding. They all take in a breath, and scream in terror, running down a hallway. Just as predicted, Daachan begins lumbering its way in that direction, leaving Miro, Peaceful-Miro, Mira, and Hugh all alone.

However, Miro hadn't noticed that a certain person in the group had tripped and fallen when they ran away. Kate was now sprawled on the floor, a sizeable lump on her forehead.

"Ugh… Oww…" She groans, getting up to her knees and holding a hand against the bruise. "No wonder Miro hates it when I hit him for saying something…"

She quickly came to realize soon after that that there was a fair bit of shadow where she currently was. Looking up, she sees the gigantic Daachan looming over her, looking down at her as menacingly as a big teddy bear could.

"Oh, crap… This is not how I wanted to go…" She mumbles.

Miro suddenly notices something and turns in the direction of the huge Daachan. He hears Kate scream and sees it lift its pawed foot up and smash it into the ground in front of it. He couldn't quite see what had happened, but he assumed the worst.

"K… Kate…" He mumbles, his eyes wide.

"Hmm… Well, there goes the bully of the town." Hugh says, smiling. "Serves her right for teasing me all these years."

"…Maybe she was a bully," Miro says, looking at him angrily. "but she did NOT deserve that!"

Peaceful-Miro looked to be shocked, and Mira was steaming mad.

Meanwhile, behind the large, decorative statue of a dead fish, Matthew was kneeling down to remain hidden, with an un-crushed Kate leaning against the statue, a bit shocked at what had just happened.

"You… How'd you do that?" She asks breathlessly.

"Being sneaky pays off sometimes. I saw you fall and decided not to let Miro down." Matthew says, peering around the statue to see what was going on. Daachan was standing nearby, looking around to see where Kate had gone. He could also see Miro, Miro, Mira, and Hugh a distance away.

"Well… you saved me. Thank you." Kate says. "But… don't think that you're gonna get anywhere with me."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Matthew reassures her. "I'm an Anna person. You're far, far out of my taste range."

He continues to watch the proceedings. As he did so, he noticed something very peculiar.

"…Oh no, my theory was correct…" He mumbles.

"What? What theory?" Kate asks.

"When you and Miro went into romantic phases for a second time, I theorized that if you were ever seen by him in a state of death or mortal danger, he would have a certain reaction… His romantic side would be shocked and possibly crushed…"

Indeed, Peaceful-Miro seemed extremely upset. He was pale, and his eyes wide. He couldn't even speak, he was so taken aback.

"…And as thoughts of anger go into his mind, his dark side will rush out in an almost supernatural manner…"

Speaking of which, Mira looked quite obviously peeved by this whole thing. She was gripping her weapon very hard and even seemed to be glowing a dark shade.

"…Not only that, but it would be fuelled by the deep feelings of his romantic side, and…"

Miro looked at his two alter-selves, and realized what was about to happen. He was standing right between them, and they both began to walk toward him.

"You know what to do?" Mira asks.

"I have some idea…" Miro states. "You two come back inside me, and I take my revenge on this evil turd."

"For Kate…" Peaceful-Miro announces.

The two alter-Miros rush into the original one, re-fusing back together in a bright, red light. Once the light had vanished, only one Miro was there, crouching down and looking at the ground. Slowly, it looked up and began to stand up. He had an extremely serious expression on his face, and there was still a very faint glow of red around him. When the glow had vompletely vanished, he continued to stare at Hugh, holding both of the weapons in his hands.

Kate, meanwhile, watched this along with Matthew.

"Should we tell him that I'm alive?" She asks.

"Naah, let's see how he fares against Hugh now." Matthew says.

Miro turned his head away from Hugh, and looked at Daachan, who had stopped and turned to see what this new power was.

"I…" Miro begins. "…am gonna SLAY YOUR TEDDY ARSE!"

He begins to run toward Daachan and reached him faster than anyone could have guessed. He had already cut three large gashes into its stitches and stuffing before Hugh could reach him and block a fourth attempt with the Soul Irritant.

"Not so fast!" He says. "You've still got me to deal with!"

"Fine, just as long as one of you pays for this…" Miro says, pulling his swords back and holding them at the ready.

"Tch, c'mon, let's see what you've got!" Hugh says. Miro obliges by running the Soul Eater into his chest and the Keyblade into his shoulder.

"…DAMMIT!" Hugh says, pulling himself free from the weapons. "Oww… DAACHAN!"

Daachan does what it did before, using a red sparkle of energy to heal Hugh completely. Miro's eyes narrow.

"That was a fluke!" Hugh says. "There's no way that that's happening twice!"

(Slice-Slice)

"OWW! DAACHAN!"

(Heal-Heal)

"Grr…" Hugh says, backing up a bit. "Just gimme a minute, will ya? Daachan, go after the others. I'll take care of Miro."

Daachan obeys and turns away, beginning to walk. At the same time, it mends the cuts that Miro caused it by using its power to mingle the fabric into stitching, closing up the gashes.

Kate and Matthew quickly go back to hiding behind the fish statue, watching as Daachan walked right by them.

"…That was close…" Matthew breathes out. Kate nods in agreement.

-

"Hmm… That might be dangerous…" an unknown, female voice in an unknown location says, watching the proceedings of the fight with interest by looking into a pool of water. "That evil Hugh boy's smarter than I thought. Oh, and I had hoped that I wouldn't have to get involved… But it looks like I will. Miro's turned into some sort of evil thing. We can't have two evil things here, now can we? No, no, we can't even have one. And if Miro ever gets possessed by Daachan in the state he's in… oh, it makes my teal hair curl just thinking about it… Well, that settles it. I'm on my way. Ta-ta!"


	27. Part 21: Part 3: Oooooh, Semi Climactic

(Hello, there! This is going to be a very… interesting chapter, we can say. Now, I implore you… no, wait, I BEG you to send in a review! I got next to nothing review-wise for my last chapter, and I want every single opinion on this story that I can get! Thank you in advance!)

"So… Where first?" Miro asks, looking at Hugh in a sinister way, twirling his blades absently. He looked very different from what he usually was. His good side was badly hurt, and was fueling his dark side. The expression on Miro's face had absolutely no fear or pity in it, and for good reason. After all, he still thought that Kate was floor paste. He never bothered to look at the empty dent on the floor where Daachan had smashed its foot down.

"…What do you mean?" Hugh asks, holding his own weapon at the ready. He was actually backing off a bit, a bit concerned about how calm and dangerous this new Miro looked to be. Miro began to walk slowly toward him, making Hugh back off a bit more.

"I mean…" Miro begins, slowly and sounding quite evil. "…Is there any place that seems to have… a bit too much blood? I'd be more than happy to relieve it if that's the case."

Matthew and Kate, meanwhile, are watching this from behind the fish statue.

"Wow… that doesn't sound like Miro…" Kate says, sounding slightly concerned.

"It's an effect of the reaction." Matthew says. "I suppose it would… alter his personality. Now that his dark side is mingled and fueled with his good side, there's nothing to hold it back… I suppose you could call him Dark-Dark Miro."

"But… can he go back to normal?" Kate asks. "I mean, as cool as having a merciless, soulless, evil person for a boyfriend would be, I'd like to have the old Miro back…"

Matthew looks at her for a moment.

"…What?" Kate asks.

"…Oh, umm…" Matthew begins. "It's just the first time that you've called Miro that…"

"So?" Kate asks. "Why bother saying what everyone else knows?"

"You seemed a bit uneasy about it when Miro's mom said it." Mathew points out.

"She's a parent. It makes anyone uneasy, hearing that from a parent." Kate points out. "Now, you didn't tell me; can Miro go back to normal?"

"…I'm not sure." Matthew admits. "If his good side has been defeated, there's a chance that he may never return to his former self…"

Kate pauses for a moment, and then nods solemnly. That's what she feared. He'd be much harder to sneak up near riverbeds on now…

Back to the fight, Miro was beginning to grow tired of Hugh's hesitation.

"You're the one who wanted to fight." Miro begins. "Now lift up that sword of yours and attack me."

Hugh's eyes narrow, and he finally obliges, dashing at Miro and slashing the Soul Irritant downward. Miro blocked it and swiped the Soul Eater at Hugh, doing nothing but slightly cutting his muscle shirt. It was odd that he didn't manage to cut skin, since shirts are usually rather close to skin, but perhaps it was just Miro giving a warning.

Hugh steps back and growls, holding his weapon out again.

"I'm not gonna lose to you!" He shouts defiantly.

"…Put your weapon down." Miro says calmly.

"What?" Hugh asks.

"Come and fight me like a jock." Miro says, dropping his two weapons. "This way we'll know that one of us won fair and square."

Hugh pauses for a moment, and then chuckles slightly, an evil gleam in his eyes.

"Jocks don't fight fair!" He proclaims, going at Miro again with a vertical slash.

"Big mistake." Miro says.

With that, Miro effortlessly steps out of the blade's path, turning away from Hugh and clamping onto the flat end of it. He pulls it out of Hugh's grasp, since Hugh was in shock of how quickly Miro moved, and spins back around to face Hugh, holding the blade to his throat by still clamping onto the handle.

"Say the word, and this goes straight forward." Miro says seriously. "…Unless you want to fight fair."

"Uh… well, if you put it that way…" Hugh says nervously, shrugging to try to cover it up. Miro doesn't bother to wait for him to finish. He throws the blade away. Besides, by touching it, he was subject to the irritating sounds that it made in his head. Shaking his head slightly, Miro steps back and waits.

"…Begin." He says. Hugh takes a swing at him angrily, which Miro dodges and uses the opening to strike him in the back with his elbow. It didn't seem to do much, though, which was the big problem in this fight. Even with Miro's new speed and power, Hugh was just too tough to injure easily. Miro noticed one potential weakness, however, and once Hugh tries to strike him with a kick, Miro dodges again and aims a low, horizontal kick to the back of Hugh's knee, the one that he used to stay standing while he tried to kick at Miro. Hugh falls onto his knee and before he can get back up, Miro stomps his foot onto his back and grabs Hugh's upward-pointing tuft of hair, pulling his head back with it.

"Why don't you let me save my effort and break your own neck?" Miro asks, sounding quite serious.

"Grr… I don't think so, bud." Hugh says, suddenly standing up and throwing Miro off of him. Miro lands easily and decides not to waste time talking. He runs up to Hugh, dodges another punch, and raises a gloved fist, punching Hugh on the nose. As Hugh was recoiling from it, Miro jumped up a surprising height and kneed Hugh in the chin, sending him toppling backward to the ground. Miro lands easily again and looks down at Hugh.

"If you're quite done, you can die now." He says.

Kate, meanwhile, watched this with many different thoughts and emotions going through her. Finally, she decides to stick with one and express it.

"I… I don't want Miro to be like this… Sure, he's kicking butt, but he's just not himself… I want the old Miro back!"

"You've got it!" Comes a voice from… directly above her. Kate looks up and sees a woman with bluish-green hair and a blue dress that would take much too long to describe smiling down at her. She suddenly vanishes and re-appears next to Miro.

"COOL IT!" She yells enthusiastically, holding her hands toward Miro. Miro is suddenly surrounded in a blue light. He yells, struggling to escape, but he couldn't move his legs. Suddenly, there is a pretty flash of white light and Miro is on his hands and knees, looking stunned.

"There you go! You're back to normal." The woman says, smiling. "How do you feel, Miro?"

"Wh… But… H-how do you know my name?" Miro asks, stuttering. He gets up slowly and looks at her.

"How do I know your name? Let's just say I know a great many things." The woman replies.

-

William suddenly gasps, having suddenly sensed something.

"The… The Goddess… The Goddess is here…"

And get this: He's right.

-

Suddenly, Miro looks to be extremely mad.

"Why'd you do that? I WAS WINNING!" He shouts. He decides not to wait for a response and instead go to get his weapons again. Running to them as quickly as he could, he grabs the Keyblade and Soul Eater. However, when he stands up and faces Hugh with them, they yank themselves from his grip and fly in opposite directions, due to being opposite powers and all.

"Dammit!" Miro curses, now totally unarmed.

"Now, now, don't be cross." The woman, which if you haven't guessed yet is the Harvest Goddess, says calmly. "I had to do it. You were getting much too evil, and no one wants that. Besides, you'll have a weapon."

"Yeah? Will this be before I die?" Miro asks. "And hey, you seem tough, why don't you help me fight?"

"Love to, can't." The Harvest Goddess says. "I can't attack anybody directly, it's much too un-Goddesslike. I can only pretend to be helpful by thanking people for offerings and handing over the occasional gift. When I noticed Daachan for the first time, I sent William out to get him. And I'm afraid it's only one super-powered human courtesy of me per evil demon."

"Who made up that rule?" Miro demands.

"Me." The Goddess replies, smiling. "It's all so you get taught a lesson in life and things like that."

"…Wait, lemme guess…" Miro begins. "You don't want us to depend on you for everything because you're too lazy to help us out all of the time?"

"Yep." The Harvest Goddess says, nodding. "I guess I'll just leave you to it now. Oh…" She moves closer to Miro and whispers in his ear.

"Kate's not dead. She's hiding with Matthew behind that big fish statue."

"What? Why, that-" Miro begins, angrily turning to the statue and beginning to stomp toward it. The Goddess stops him, however, by making vines tangle around his feet.

"It's not like that." She reassures him. "Matthew just saved her life. They're deciding on whether they should go to fight Daachan or stay to see if they can help you."

"…Okay, fine." Miro says. "I guess I'll keep on fighting, then."

"Good." The Goddess says, making the roots vanish. "I'll be watching you. Bye now."

With that, she disappears in a flash of light. Miro turns to face Hugh, who was just getting up from the sharp knee he took to the jaw.

"Have a nice nap, Hugh?" Miro asks.

"Heh… I wasn't sleeping…" Hugh says, getting up fully but keeping his head lowered. "And I heard what you said… You're back to normal."

"Maybe, but I was handling you fairly well when I wasn't super-dark. Now that I've smacked you around a bit, I'd say that we're about tied." Miro says, getting ready to fight.

"Heh, in your dreams!" Hugh laughs. "I haven't shown you what I'm really made of! There's more to a jock than big muscles, Miro."

"Not much." Miro says. "Unless you're planning to beat me with sneering, half-baked insults and poor Math skills."

"You've got a big mouth, don't ya?" Hugh asks, raising his head slowly. "But I think you've forgotten one big thing about my type of people… We have perfect smiles."

Before Miro could question what Hugh meant about this, Hugh takes action. Raising his head fully, he gives Miro a perfect, toothy smile. The astonishing, phenominal, unbelievable, extraordinary… err… phantasmagorical shine of his teeth gave off a light so searingly bright, it bathed Miro in a pure white shade and caused him to stagger back.

"AUUGH!" He yells, covering his eyes. "THE SHINE! MY EYES ARE BLISTERING!"

Kate and Matthew look away from the fight and take cover behind the statue. Even though the light wasn't directed to them, it was still incredibly bright.

"Miro's in trouble!" Kate says. "What're we going to do?"

"Umm… We'll need something to stain his teeth…" Matthew begins, looking around. "But… there's no food or anything nearby…"

Kate suddenly gets an idea. She looks at Matthew eagerly.

"Matthew, I need you to stay here and make sure that Hugh doesn't hurt Miro… well, more than he already is hurting Miro with that Shiny Teeth Attack of his…" Kate says, getting up and beginning to walk away from them.

"And where are you going?" Matthew asks.

"I'm going to get Lumina." Kate replies, not looking back since the light would hurt her eyes. "There's no time to explain. Just do what I said."

-

The running, screaming group turn a corner in the main hall, all pressing their backs against the wall once they had done so. They took the time to catch their breath.

"Anyone have… a plan…?" Elli asks, out-of-breath.

"I've got one!" Anna says, putting her Rucksack down and opening it. She begins to fiddle through the things in it until she discovers what she was looking for. She pulls out a pump-action shotgun, skillfully loads it with shells, cocks it, and shuffles to the edge of the wall, looking around the corner and seeing Daachan lumbering toward them. Quickly, Anna steps out of cover, aims the gun, and fires, reloading and firing multiple times until it was out of ammo. There were many small holes present on Daachan now, but it uses its power to patch itself up again.

"Darn…" She says. Putting the gun down, she runs back to her backpack and pulls out a fully automatic machine gun. Loading it with a clip, she repeats the process of sliding to the edge of the wall, stepping into sight of Daachan, and firing. She completely empties her clip into Daachan's fuzzy belly and face, showing bizarrely impressive control with her weapon. Once the clip was out, Daachan repeats the process of repairing the many small holes in it.

"Oh, man…" Anna grumbles, throwing her gun down and running to her backpack again. After sifting through it and reaching into an extremely deep pocket, she pulls out a large, shiny grenade launcher. Loading it with a single, also-quite-large grenade, she repeats the slide-against-the-wall process for the third time and steps into view once again, aiming the large weapon at it. She fires, the recoil nearly knocking the gun out of her hands, and the projectile makes contact and explodes on Daachan's face.

"Haha! Gotcha!" Anna proclaims, seeing that a good portion of the front of Daachan's face had been blown right off. However, the eyes, which still clung to the rest of Daachan by some loose fabric, began to glow a bright red and slowly, the stuffing scatered about begins to float toward Daachan and re-fom itself into the same, evil teddy face. Once it was complete again, Daachan continued to walk toward them.

Anna whimpers slightly and then throws her weapon down in frustration, moving back into the cover of the wall.

"Well… I'm fresh out of plans." She says. "Anybody else?"

"Maybe… We can do something to distract it, and then run?" Kai asks. The Jacks nod at this idea.

"Well, I'd love to hear your suggestions." Nami says.

"…I think I know." Ricca says. She turns to Anna. "Anna, do you have a flamethrower in there?"

"Well, of course!" Anna says, walking to her backpack and pulling it out. "What do you want it for?"

"Well, teddy bears are flammable." Ricca points out. "I should know. I've put a few of them to the torch."

"Yeah, a few of _mine_…" Anna reminds her. She throws the flamethrower to Ricca, who catches it and readies it in her hands.

"…Do you even know where your daughter got all of those from?" Nami asks Ann.

"No idea." Ann says. "Although… When she said that she was going out for a party, I told her that it would be safer if she carried something around for self-defence… I guess she took the idea to heart."

"A party in Mineral Town?" Cliff says. "Jee, Ann, it's kinda hard to get away with something during a party when everyone in town knows each other, don't you think? I think you could trust that Karrie's not going to come at her with a knife."

"Karrie?" The non-hatted Jack asks. "Who's-"

"We don't have time." Ricca cuts in. "Get ready for my signal."

"What signal?" Popuri asks.

"I'll say 'run'." Ricca explains.

"Okay… So what'll we do once we hear the signal?" Jack asks.

Ricca sighs and doesn't bother to answer, running to the edge of the wall and stepping to face Daachan. She aims the weapon and pulls the trigger, sending a jet of flame into Daachan. Once the bear was completely bathed in flames, Ricca throws the weapon down and looks at them.

"Run!" She yells. Herself and the rest of the group then proceed to run, Anna picking up her backpack along the way. They continued to run until they spotted a toy store which had no lights on. They run inside and in between two shelves full of toys, taking cover.

"Whew… I think we lost it…" Elli says, breathing heavily.

"Yeah… Yeah, I think so…" Cliff agrees.

"Hey, where are Kate and Matthew?" Lumina asks, speaking for the first time in a while. She was the first to notice that they were gone.

"I don't know…" Mary says. "Do you think they stayed behind to help out your son, Nami?"

"…Either that or Daachan got to them." Nami says. "…But no, I know that Kate's able to fend for herself. Matthew, though… Naah, he's toast."

"Jee, thanks…" Gray mumbles.

"I can't see a thing…" Popuri mutters.

"That's the point, neither can it." Cliff reminds her.

"Sure, but I'd still be safer knowing where Kai's hands are at all times…" Ann says.

"We'll have to live without that knowledge for a while, I'm afraid." Nami says. "Now shut up and be quiet."

"…Ooh, hey, that's better." Popuri says a moment later. "But I thought you said that we shouldn't have any light…"

"Where's that light coming from?" Anna asks, looking around. "It's all red…"

"Oh, I know!" Jack chimes in. "It's coming from those two small, red lights towering over the shelf behind us!"

"Oh… Okay." Popuri says, shrugging.

The group remains silent for a moment, and then come to a sudden realization of what the lights were. Their faces go blank.

Screaming, they get up and begin running out of the store, just as Daachan smashed down the shelf that they were hiding behind. Once everyone was outside of the shop, Jack-from-Mineral-Town stops and turns back, pulling out his sickle.

"What're you doing?" Ann demands, looking back at him.

"It's just a teddy bear, I'm sure I can take him." Jack replies, watching as Daachan walked out the entrance of the shop.

"But didn't you see it fix itself all of those times?" Ricca says. "You can't hurt it!"

"Yeah, but it can't hurt me… badly." Jack reminds them. "I mean, it's only a giant, soft teddy bear."

"Hey, you're right!" His cousin says, pulling out his own sickle and standing next to him. "Let's get 'im!"

The hatted Jack runs at Daachan first, slicing into its leg with his weapon. Daachan simply continues to walk as it was already doing, kicking that Jack over in the process.

The other Jack is more wary, and keeps his distance from Daachan for a while.

"C'mon, you ugly excuse for a comfort toy!" He yells at it. "I'll slice you into mothballs! You've got nothing on me!"

Daachan's eyes suddenly begin to glow a very intense red, and a beam shoots from them, incinerating Jack's sickle.

"…Oh, SINCE WHEN?" He says angrily, running with the other Jack back to the rest of the group.

"Our heroes." Ann says, rolling her eyes. "Any other bright ideas?"

"Yeah, let's keep on running." One Jack says, the other Jack nodding at this. In general unison, the group continues running until, suddenly, Daachan uses its power to make all of the toys from the toy shop levitate and place themselves in front of the path that the group was running down, all at an amazing speed. The group was now blocked by a wall of toys and stuffed animals which moved to block their path whenever they tried to go around it. Finally, the group turns and faces Daachan, who continued to lumber on toward them.

"…We're toast." The hatted Jack says, everyone else looking to be in agreement with this.

"…Nami, can we kiss passionately before we die?" The other Jack asks, looking to Nami with a facial expression akin to this situation.

"…Oh, why not?" Nami says, pulling Jack into her arms and… well, I'm sure you can guess.

"Eugh…" Ricca says in disgust, looking away. "Not only are we gonna die, but our last sight's gonna be Miro's parents sucking face with each other…"

_Sucking face… Sucking…_ Jack repeats to himself in his mind, thinking for a moment. He suddenly gasps mentally, since gasping physically might have caused some sort of gruesome inhalation of internal organs and the like. _I've got an idea! I know how to beat it! …'Course, I don't need to share my ideas RIGHT away. I mean, what's the hurry? The bear's far enough away for me, thank-you-very-much. And it doesn't really move that fast. I'd say that I have a good 45 seconds before I need to share any info with the rest of the group._

45 seconds passed all-too-quickly for Jack, all-too-slowly for anyone watching. He pulls away and takes in a breath, looking refreshed.

"Okay, firstly…" He begins. "I haven't had a taste of those tonsils in a long time, and they are still DELICIOUS! …Oh, and I know how to beat Daachan."

"What?" Nami says in surprise, accidentally letting go of Jack and dropping him to the floor.

"I know how to… Oww, I think I bruised my spine… Anyway, I know how to beat him!" Jack repeats, getting up slowly.

"How?" Nami asks, the rest of the group listening intentively.

"With the family's secret weapon…" Jack says, smirking and reaching into his Rucksack. He fiddles around in it for a moment and then pulls out what he was looking for.

The Goat Milker.

"Of course!" Mary exclaims. "That's the perfect tool for removing the demon's eyes! There's only one problem… How do we reach it?"

Just then, Kate comes running from around the corner that they came from, eyeing the group and Daachan, and rushing toward them, careful to keep a distance from the huge bear.

"Umm… Can I borrow Lumina for a minute?" She asks.

"Sure, I guess…" Nami says.

"But can you help us first?" Kai asks. "We need to find out how to reach Daachan's eyes."

"…Have you tried jumping?" Kate asks.

"Would that work?" Cliff asks. "It's over 10 feet tall…"

"Just have someone act heroic! Then they'll be able to jump it automatically!" Kate says. "Trust me, I saw it on TV!"

"Well, okay…" Jack says. "Off you go, Lumina."

Lumina nods and shuffles away from Daachan, running toward Kate once she was a safe distance. Kate begins running back to where she came from once Lumina caught up, beckoning for Lumina to follow. She does, unsure of what this was all about.

"Umm, Kate?" She asks while running.

"Yeah?" Kate asks, looking at her.

"What do you have planned?" Lumina inquires.

"You're gonna help Miro out." Kate replies. She pulls out a tube of lipstick and throws it to her. "Here, put it on. And really layer it well, you need as much as possible."

"Umm… Okay…" Lumina replies, beginning to apply it. "Eugh… It's hard when I'm running… What're you doing with this stuff, anyway? You don't seem the type to carry lipstick around in your dress pocket."

"Oh… Well, it's cherry red. I have it with me just in case I need to look unattractive." Kate explains. "But I think it'll work on you."

"You have it so you can look unattractive? Don't be silly, you don't need lipstick to do that." Lumina replies, giggling.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kate asks angrily.

Lumina decided not to answer. They continued to run until they reached the fish statue, the two of hem needing to shield their eyes from the light of Hugh's teeth. Matthew had done what he was told, by throwing random, small objects at Hugh from the cover of the statue in order to distract him. Kate and Lumina duck behind the statue.

"So, what's the plan?" Matthew asks, noticing the lipstick on Lumina's face and grimacing slightly.

"Lumina, Hugh obviously likes you, so…" Kate begins. "…You're the only one who can do this. I need you to walk to Hugh, and I don't care how you do it, but kiss him. And I mean really get in there, lips, tongue, and whatever else'll fit."

"Oh, I get it!" Matthew says. "The lipstick will stain his teeth!"

"Exactly." Kate says, nodding. "So, Lumina, are you up for it?"

"But I don't wanna look cheap…" Lumina says in concern.

"You're rich, you can just buy your friends back." Kate reminds her. "Besides, no one but me and Matthew… and Miro, if he still has vision, will be watching, so don't worry about it!"

"Well… Okay." Lumina says, getting up and shielding her eyes, walking around the statue.

"Huuuuugh…" She calls out. Hugh stops smiling for a moment and look in her direction.

"Lumina…" He begins.

"Hugh, why are you hurting Miro?" Lumina asks. "You could've just asked… I like you, too."

"…Well, this is new." Kate says to herself, now watching intently and taking mental notes.

"Really?" Hugh replies, slightly stunned. "But why didn't you tell me…?"

"Well, I like you, but not as much as Miro or his Dad." Lumina points out.

"That sounds wrong…" Miro says while groping around and trying to recover from his blindness.

"…But they're both kind of taken, so you're going to just settle for me?" Hugh asks, looking a bit angry.

"Yep." Lumina says, walking closer to him.

"…Okay." Hugh replies, shrugging. "But I'm still going to get rid of Miro, just so you have nothing to regret for choosing me."

"Fine. But first you have to do one thing for me…" Lumina adds, leaning closer to him.

"…What would that be?" Hugh asks when her face was within in inch of his. The people watching sigh in frustration, mumbling curses. Undaunted, Lumina looks at him.

"Kiss me."

"What?"

"Kiss. Me."

"…What?"

"**Kiss me!**"

"…Why?"

"…I don't know… I can't remember…"

Kate was close to pulling her hair out in frustration, but instead starts pulling out Matthew's in order to save her the pain.

"Those two are meant for each other, I swear…" She growls through clenched teeth. "They're both thicker than wet cement…"

"_Yeeeah…_" Matthew says in agreement, obviously in quite a bit of pain. "_Why… don't… you… remind her?_"

"Hmm… Good idea." Kate says, letting go of Matthew's hair. Matthew quickly puts his cap back on and holds his head, groaning in pain. Kate stands up, showing herself.

"HUGH, YOU'VE BEEN WANTING TO KISS HER ALL OF THIS TIME!" She yells angrily. "SHE'S TELLING YOU TO, SO **DO IT!**"

"…I… I know that screech…" Miro says, rubbing his eyes and trying to focus in that direction. Finally, his full sight returns to him. "Kate! You're alive!"

"No duh, Miro." Kate says with a smile on her face. "But… didn't you already know that?"

"Oh yeah, the Goddess told me…" Miro says. "But now I know for sure! I actually have physical evidence!"

"Can you focus, please? Get ready for after they kiss." Kate says. Miro, unsure of the plan as of yet, nods and looks back to Hugh.

Lumina puts a hand around Hugh's head and throws herself into him, the two of them… Well, once again, you get the idea. They practically bury themselves within each other, Kate yelling words of encouragement like some sort of coach.

"C'mon! Get right in there! No mercy! Don't hold back! Give it all you've got! Just like in the movies!"

About a minute later, Hugh and Lumina part from one another, breathing heavily.

"Heh… That… was…" Hugh begins, not really able to find a word for it.

"Now, you just go finish what you were doing, and I'll be right back there, cheering you on." Lumina says, also quite flustered and out-of-breath. She turns longingly away from Hugh and rushes behind the cover of the statue.

"Great acting!" Kate says in congratulation.

"I wasn't acting…" Lumina replies.

"…So you're really on his side?" Matthew asks.

"Kinda…" Lumina says, looking down. "I'm not gonna fight, though. Hugh's going to win anyway."

"Don't be so sure!" Kate snaps. "I've seen Miro beat the original Daachan, I'm sure he has a good chance against Hugh!"

"If you say so…" Lumina says, sounding unsure on Kate's part.

Hugh turns to face Miro, who had gotten up and was ready to fight again.

"You want some more?" Hugh asks. "Here it is!"

He gives another smile. However, as was planned, Lumina's self-application of lipstick to Hugh had stained his teeth to the point of them not giving off a single sparkle of light. In fact, there was lipstick smeared all over in random areas of Hugh's face. He growls angrily.

"Lumina! You wrecked my good attack!" He yells, looking at the statue.

"Sorry!" Lumina yells back, smiling. "But don't worry, you can still beat him!"

Hugh sighs, and nods. "That I can."

With that, he holds his hand out to the discarded Soul Irritant, the blade retracting to him and landing in his hand. He holds it readily, smirking.

"Umm…" Miro begins, looking around randomly. He talks loudly, hoping to grab the Goddess' attention. "Hey, do you remember when you said that I'll have a weapon? Now would be a good time!"

In a flash of light, the Harvest Goddess appears beside Miro, just finishing fitting a flower into the physically impossible-looking bun on the right side of her head.

"Rush, rush…" She mumbles, completing this task and looking to Miro. "But I suppose I will help you by giving you a weapon."

She holds a hand in the direction of the hall that led to the main entrance, and waited for a moment. Suddenly, Miro's discarded baseball bat comes flying toward her from that direction, which William had thrown from his grip earlier, and she grabs it. Smiling, she hands it to Miro.

"…That's it?" Miro asks. "Couldn't you get me a… good weapon? Like a sword or something?"

"I can't help you that much." The Goddess replies. "I have to stay neutral from now on, or else I'd be making it too easy."

"Too easy?" Miro replies, snatching the bat as he speaks. "Unless you William-ize me, I don't see how you could possibly make this 'too easy'!"

"Oh, you'll live." The Goddess replies, a bit impatient.

"How are you so sure?" Miro asks.

"…Oh, that's right, you might not. Oh well!" She replies, smiling and vanishing again, reappearing beside Kate, Matthew, and Lumina.

"…Stupid omnipotent beings with their infinite wisdom…" Miro grumbles to himself, turning to Hugh and holding his bat out in a ready stance.

"Hmm… Hey, y'know what this place needs?" The Harvest Goddess asks before Miro and Hugh began fighting.

"What?" Kate asks.

"A gap." The Goddess replies.

"…Actually, I think I saw a Gap in the main hall a while ago." Mathew corrects her.

"Nonono, I mean, a GAP!" The Goddess yells enthusiastically, floating high above them, nearly to the roof, and holding her hands out with her palms pressed together. She slowly pulls her hands apart and, with a tremor, a huge, dark chasm slowly opened up beside Hugh and Miro, going from one end of the hall to the other. It was extremely vast, with no visible bottom, not unlike Van's limitless gut. Stupid jokes aside, it was large.

The Goddess returns to the ground, smiling.

"What're you doing?" Kate asks.

"Being neutral." The Goddess replies. "I thought I'd spice this fight up a bit, it was getting boring."

"How is that being neutral?" Matthew demands.

"Gorges are neutral. If someone falls in, someone falls in." The Goddess explains. "Bye now!"

And with that, she vanishes yet again in a flash of light.

"…We should get her therapy." Matthew mumbles.

-

"Okay, Jack, it's all you! Let's finish this thing for good!" Cliff says, trying to warm up the non-hatted, non-courageous Jack.

"B-but… It has laser eyes, and it's big…" Jack mumbles, looking up at the still-slowly-approaching Daachan.

"Jack, you're our only hope." Nami says, looking him sternly in the eyes. "If you can't do this… one of us will have to take the milker from your charred, crushed body and try it."

"Yeah… you're right…" Jack says, wiping a surprisingly large amount of sweat from his forehead and swallowing. "I can do this, no sweat."

"Exactly. It's gonna be no challenge at all." Nami says. "I'm sure you've done much harder things than this. Much harder…"

"Yeah…?" Jack says, going through his memory to try to think up anything.

-

"_Well, this is your new home…" Takakura says, looking around at the old, neglected farmland. "It has old, but strong buildings and-"_

"_Ooh, what's this?" Jack asks, running off in a random direction. A 'thunk' is heard. "AAH! HELP ME! GET ME OUT!"_

"_That would be the garbage chute…"Takakura mutters, sighing._

_-_-

"…Nope." Jack says, shaking his head.

"Think harder." Nami demands urgently. The rest of the group looked at Daachan slowly approaching. There wasn't much time left…

"Okay…" Jack says, beginning to think again.

-

"_Rrrgh… Nyrrrrgh… GARRRRRRGGGGGAAAAHHHHRAGARAAAARHHH…"A youthful Jack says, obviously straining at something. He was sitting at the Blue Bar table, in the throes of an arm wrestle. After a few moments of struggling with his opponent, he is defeated, his arm slamming into the bar table opposite._

"_Hehe! I win!" Muffy says triumphantly, smiling and throwing her arms up in the air._

-

"…Still no." Jack says, shaking his head again.

"Think, dammit!" Nami says, shaking him by his shoulders. "That bear's nearly breathing down our necks!"

"…Daachan doesn't brea-"

"You know what I mean!" Nami says. "Think of the absolute bravest thing you've ever done, something that would easily dwarf this situation, something that had the possibility of having your life ended in an instant!"

"…Hmm…" Jack begins, closing his eyes in concentration.

-

_"Umm… err… I, umm…" Jack begins, a blue object being held behind him in his sweaty palm. Even with his gloves on, the sweat had seeped through enough to be visible._

_"Well? What do you want?" Nami asks irritably. "If you're going to drag me all the way to this beach, you should at least have something worth saying."_

"_Umm… Y-yes…" Jack begins, attempting to balance himself kneeling down on one knee. His face was reddening, and his brow was slick with sweat. "I need to ask you…"_

"…_You want to finish that sentence today?" Nami asks. "Evening only lasts so long. It won't wait for your slow, staggering brain to make your mouth form words."_

"_Err… Okay, okay…" Jack says, taking in a breath. He slowly moves his hands from behind his back and holds them out to her, presenting the Blue Feather._

"_Hmm… I think I've seen those before…" Nami says, turning her head to the side slightly._

_Jack continues with his small speech, following Nami's instructions and finishing the sentence._

"_I need to ask you… Will you marry me?"_

_Nami seems shocked for a moment… Well, shocked in comparison to most of Nami's reactions to things. Her eyes widen slightly and she pauses, mouth slightly open. She gradually recovers over the next few seconds of silence, and looks at him seriously again._

"…_Marry you? I've only known you for a couple of months. What are you, on a deadline?" She asks._

"…_Well, yes." Jack admits. "If I don't marry someone within the first year, I'm getting out of this town and going back to the city."_

"…_And I thought I was impatient…" Nami mumbles. "Well, I'll think it over."_

_Nami then walks toward the Inner Inn. Jack decided to follow in secret._

_Once Nami had entered her room, she began to mull it over. There wasn't really much to mull, though. She'd either marry him or they would both be skipping town in the end of the year. Jack, as silently as he could, enters the room, making the mistake of shutting the door behind him._

"_What made you think you could follow me?" Nami asks._

"_I… thought you'd be done thinking." Jack admits._

"_It takes a while to think, you know. But I guess I could forgive you due to your serious lack of experience." Nami replies._

"…_Err, good. So…?" Jack begins urgently._

"…_You say that you won't be here if I come back later?" Nami asks._

"…_Well, yeah." Jack says._

"…_Y'know what? Fine. Let's get married." Nami says, nodding. "It's just paperwork, anyway."_

"_So… you like me?"_

"_You could call it that…"_

-

"GOT IT!" Jack says, clutching the milker in his hand with a look of serious determination on his face. "I married you, Nami, and that makes friggin' everything else seem easy!"

"Exactly! I've been training you for this sort of thing since the day we met!" Nami explains.

"…Really? I thought you were just evil." Jack says, humming in thought.

"…That too." Nami says, shrugging and letting go of Jack, stepping out of his way. "Now show me your stuff."

"You've got it!" Jack says enthusiastically. He cracks his neck left and right, and begins running to Daachan.

Daachan's eyes glow and it fires another beam at Jack, but he dodges it with impressive speed and then jumps up, not quite able to reach Daachan's face. However, instead of colliding with Daachan's fuzzy belly like everyone expected him to do, Jack begins running up Daachan itself, up and up until he reached its nose, which he grabs onto with his free hand and throws himself upward, turning the Goat Milker on while in mid-air, and thrusting it downward in his descent, plunging the suction device into its face.

The milker was too small to cover both of the eyes at once, however it did cover its right eye. After a moment of struggle, Daachan swings its paw at him, which Jack manages to dodge by clambering to the other side of Daachan's head. With a defiant flash of light, Daachan's eye succumbs to the suction and is pulled from its face, sucked into the mini-container inside the Milker. Jack pulls the milker off and is forced to jump from the bear, since it was swaggering unstably now. He lands and, after recovering from a slight daze, runs to the rest of the group.

"I did… what I could…" He says, breathing heavily.

"It seems more unstable now…" Mary points out, watching Daachan slowly stagger around. "I suppose, with only half of its power, it has less control over the bear."

"So let's finish it off!" Kai says, pulling a now-slightly-moldy swordfish from his backpack. "I haven't done anything in a while, let me do this!"

He runs at Daachan, holding his fish in a ready-to-slice position. Daachan takes a clumsy downward swing at him, which he thankfully dodges since it was strong enough to leave cracks on the ground. Kai then slices at Daachan's leg, causing it to fall to one knee. It was repairing itself, but much more slowly due to its lack of power.

"…We need to cripple it." Nami mutters. "If we do that, we can take its other eye with the Milker. I don't think that Jack can do a flashy move like that twice."

"No kidding…" Jack mutters, holding his side. "I nearly threw my hip right out of my body there…"

"But can Kai do that all by himself?" Ann asks.

"No, we'll have to help him." Ricca says. "I'll do it, he's my dad. Give me something to cut with."

"Here, take my scimitar." Popuri says, pulling the blade from seemingly nowhere and handing it to her with a smile.

"Err… Thanks, mom…" Ricca says, looking as confused and bewildered as the rest of them. She takes the blade and runs at Daachan, ducking under a fuzzy, horizontal swing and running behind it, hacking into its other leg. Kai was busy slicing the other leg faster than it could repair, and Daachan finally falls to its paws and knees. Jack takes action and walks to it. He would run, but his side was killing him and he would probably seize up. However, Daachan takes a last-ditch attempt to protect itself and fires a beam from its remaining eye. Jack dodges it but he hears a yell from behind him. He turns, seeing Nami looking stunned and shocked. He assumed the worst.

"Nami… It singed your hair!"

"Yes… Yes, Jack…" Nami mutters, looking at the bang of hair the once covered a portion of her face. It was all-but-gone, shortened to near the middle of her forehead. Jack was shocked. He looked at the culprit with renewed rage.

"DAMN YOU, DAACHAN!" He yells, running at it and shoving the milker deeply into its squishy face, almost reaching for its eye in doing so. The eye is quickly slurped into the void of the milker, and finally, the gigantic form of Daachan falls to the ground in a lifeless, fuzzy heap.

Jack turns off the milker, sighing. It was over. He turns to Nami worriedly.

"Are you going to be okay…?" He asks.

"I'll… I'll be fine." Nami reassures him. "It'll grow back…"

"Okay…" Jack says. "Now let's get back to Miro!"

The group agrees and immediately starts running back to where Miro was.

-

"Let's finish this." Miro says, swinging his weapon readily.

"Bring it on." Hugh replies, running at Miro. Miro blocks his initial attack but is then punched hard in the chest. Now, Hugh being very big and strong, and Miro being comparatively small and weak, a punch by Hugh to Miro would cause a very neat physical reaction. In this case, it was Miro being sent flying into a bookshop, scattering books everywhere. Smirking, Hugh begins walking to the shop, his weapon at the ready. Miro comes out, however, looking calm despite his fresh bruise. He was holding a book in front of his face, patiently reading it.

"…What's that?" Hugh asks.

"Well, it's known in some places as a 'book'." Miro replies, not looking up at him.

"I know that." Hugh snaps. "I mean why are you reading it?"

"…It caught my eye." Miro explains. He then shuts it and holds the cover out in front of him, looking at Hugh. The title read: 'Jet Li's How to Kick Butt in Fifteen Seconds'.

Miro then throws the book away, getting into a fighting stance and suddenly running at Hugh. Hugh clashes weapons with Miro, Miro blocking, countering, and striking back with neat movie-style-karate action. Hugh pulls back slightly and then comes at him again, aiming a deadly horizontal slash at him. Just in time, Miro backflips over Hugh in a style that would look absolutely cool in super-slow motion, and lands behind him. He aims a downward strike at him, But Hugh turns around and meets blades with him just in time. They push at each other's weapons for a while, both of them in a stalemate. What's more is that they were standing at the very edge of the chasm.

Kate, Lumina, and Matthew watch this with their breath held, until they hear a sound behind them. They turn, seeing the group running toward them. Forgetting the fight for the moment, the three of them run to the rest of the group until they meet.

"Are you guys all right?" Matthew asks.

"We're fine." Gray says.

"Except for Nami…" Jack says, looking in dismay at her mortal hair wound. "…And my hip's killing me, too."

Back at the climatic scene in the fight, Miro was beginning to lose ground to Hugh. However, seeing that Kate was no longer watching gave him a surge of inspiration powerful enough to begin pushing Hugh back. They remain at equal strength at the mid-point until finally, Miro begins shoving Hugh even farther back, until finally…

"You're… going… DOWN!" Miro yells, twisting his weapon and using Hugh's momentum to cause him to lose balance, accidentally step down where there was no floor, and begin to fall over. In an instant, Hugh takes action.

"And YOU"RE going with me!" He replies, grabbing Miro as falls over. They both disappear over the edge in a near-instant.

Kate looks over to where the two of them were and gasps.

"Miro!" She yells, beginning to run to the edge. She reaches it very quickly, kneeling down and looking over the edge. With much relief, she sees Miro hanging from the side, a few feet down from where Kate was.

"Miro!" She repeats.

"…Heh… We're a long way from home, aren't we…?" He asks, looking up at her.

"D-Don't even start with some crappy dying speech, I'll help you!" Kate replies, looking around urgently. Tears began to well in her eyes. "I'll throw you down a rope or… or something…"

"…Just forget it, Kate…" Miro says, pausing for a moment. "…I don't think I'm getting out of this one."

Kate stops looking around and stares down at him, still looking desperate. She gets down to her stomach and tries vainly to reach for him, but he was much too far down.

"…Kate," Miro begins.

"What?" Kate asks, keeping her hand lowered over the edge.

"I have to tell you something…" He continues. "I… I love you!"

"…And?"

"**AND WHAT?**"

"Well, I already figured that much." Kate says, shrugging. "I thought that you had something else to add."

"Okay, fine… You're bearing my child." Miro says.

"WHAT?"

"Kidding, kidding!" Miro reassures her. The rock that he was clinging to suddenly cracks slightly. He gasps.

"Kate, I… I don't have much time. Spend the next few moments reminiscing in a long flashback."

(Crack)

"…Maybe just a short flashback."

(Crack)

"Okay, forget the flashback, just add whatever you want to this conversation!"

"…How can you be funny right now?" Kate asks. "You're going to die, aren't you scared for yourself…?"

"…Well, if you're my very last sight, it doesn't bother me nearly as much." Miro replies. The rock suddenly snaps off completely, and Miro begins his untimely descent downward.

"W-wait, Miro! I forgot to say this! I love you, too!" Kate yells down.

"Oh, **NOW YOU TELL MEEEEEEEEEE**EEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee………."


	28. Part 22: Part 4: Hold on, He DIES?

(Just a note; sorry for how late this was. I started working on this chapter and then a chapter in the Fic that I'm co-authoring at the same timeand I sort of... had a brain lapse. Sorry, I'll try to remain diligent from now on! Anyway, now for the chapter that you've all grown bored of waiting for!)

A minute passed, and Jack, oblivious to what had happened, stepped forward with his milker in hand. He hummed as he walked to the edge of the gorge, and detatched the bottle containing Daachan's eyes from the rest of the milker. Unscrewing the bottle, he holds it upside-down and the eyes fall into the palm of his hand. He then closes said hand and holds it over the edge, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Goodbye, Daachan." He says, letting the two eyes drop from his fingers and down, down into the dark pit below. He keeps his smile on as he turns away, but notices Kate still lying on her stomach, her arms hanging limply over the side of the pit as she continued to look down it.

"What're you doing, Kate?" Jack asks, walking over to her. Kate doesn't reply to him. She doesn't even seem to notice him.

"Miro…" She says in a half-whisper, too quiet for anyone but Jack to hear.

"Huh? What about him? Where is he?" Jack asks, looking around and scratching his head.

"He's… not here…" Kate says, trying to contain her sadness.

"Yeah? Where'd he go?" Jack asks.

"He's… he's gone…"

"Okay, but where?" Jack persists, obviously not getting it at all.

"He has… left us…"

"What, did he need to go to the bathroom?"

"Jack, he's… as-ascended to a higher place…"

"Ugh, and I told him to stop playing with elevators…"

"Jack, he's dead…"

"…Oh, I get it!" Jack says, snapping his fingers. "This is, like, new slang that you teenagers are using! He's 'dead', meaning that he's not here! Okay, so when's he going to be 'alive' again?"

"He's DEAD!" Kate yells angrily, losing her temper and standing up on her feet, stomping at Jack. The whites of her eyes were nearly as red as her eye colour due to her crying. "He's checked out! He is no more! He's snuffed! He's cadaverous! HE IS DEAD!"

She then directed her anger to Lumina.

"AND SO IS HUGH, BY THE WAY!"

The rest of the group stood in shocked silence at this. Lumina gasped slightly and looked down, remaining quiet.

Jack finally gets it and looks over the side of the pit.

"Oh… darn, and we nearly got him back… I wonder if it's too late for me to go into monkhood…?"

"…You're-You're JOKING?" Kate yells, her fists clenched. She glared at Jack with incredible rage and looked about ready to toss him over the side to join his son. He probably wouldn't find it as funny then…

"I bet Miro did, too, before he fell." Jack replies, stepping away slightly.

Kate's hardened face lessened slightly, and he thought about it for a moment.

"Yeah… Yeah, he did…" She replied.

"Exactly. It's in the bloodline." Jack says. "In fact, the first words to come out of my mouth when Tak said that my Dad was dead were 'But the mortgage on the farm is paid off, right?'"

"…But weren't you sad?" Kate says, both stunned and disbelieving.

"Of course I was!" Jack replies. "Who wouldn't be? Once your Pop bites the big one, you're sad. There's no going around it. I'm just pretty sure that he'd want me to take it with a punchline. Sure, I grieved, and I'll probably grieve about Miro, but you have to look at the bright side."

"…Do you see a bright side?" Kate asks. "Your father and your son are gone, where is the bright side?"

"I still have a wife, a farm, and potential for more." Jack replies simply.

"…You are some kind of idiot." Nami says, beginning to walk toward him, her eyes narrowed. "There are a lot of reasons that parents protect their kids after having them, and one of them comes to mind for me really, really quickly. Do you know what fact about having kids has stuck to my mind most out of any other fact?"

Jack paused for a moment. Nami was right in his face at this point.

"Err… what…?" He asks timidly.

"It friggin' HURTS!" She yells, clubbing him with a sudden, forceful backhand. Kate had to dodge out of the way to avoid Jack's flailing body, and he then hits the ground, right beside the gorge.

"…So is that why you hurt me?" Jack inquires.

"Yes." Nami says. "And we still haven't reached a median. You still owe me 3,140 punches worth of pain."

"Oh, c'mon, that's an over-shot." Jack replies, not quite finding the need to get up yet. "Having one kid could not possibly hurt that much."

"Oh yeah? Have a flashback, Jack." Nami requests.

"Pssh, fine." Jack replies.

* * *

_"Is she done yet?"_

"_No."_

"_Is she done yet?"_

"_No."_

"_Is she done yet?"_

"_NO!" Dr. Hardy finally snaps, looking at the window where Jack continually jumped up and down outside to get a good view through. It was a rather busy day at the Clinic; even Romana's bi-annual corn removal had to be denied today. Nami was busy going through the rather harsh procedure of bringing new life into the world, and Jack wanted to see. However, Hardy had denied him this privellege, and was now facing the almost equally harsh consequence of having to put up with Jack nagging him through the window._

"_Well, when will she be done?" Jack inquires._

"_It is hard to be certain…" Hardy says, trying to contain his frustration. "It depends on how smoothly the transition goes."_

"_Oh… How's it going, Nami?" Jack asks, not pausing in his jumping._

"…_Bring…him…here…" Nami says through clenched teeth. Hardy sighs, nods, and walks to the door. Knowing that he would regret this, he unlocks it. Jack immediately bursts through it and rushes gleefully to Nami's side._

"_So? How's it going?" He asks excitedly. In an instant, Nami had her fist clenched around the red bandanna that Jack wore around his neck, leaving his windpipe with very little room to let oxygen in. She pulled his face close to hers._

"_This bastard has a huge head and you had better pray that he doesn't have pointy hair…" She growls at him, keeping a vice-like grip on his bandanna._

"_Nami… larynx… crushing…" Jack chokes out. Nami lets go but then clenches onto the metal railing on the side of the hospital bed, which Jack was surprised to see had deep rivets where Nami's fingers had been gripping to it._

"_So, Nami, when will you be done?" He asks. "Hardy doesn't know, so I thought you might."_

"…_I'd say… an hour and sixteen minutes… just enough time to pry this railing from the bed and break your legs with it…"Nami replies._

"…_Oh." Jack replies, finally getting the message to shut up. This was one thing that made them a good couple. Nami was very direct with what she didn't like, which was good, because if anyone tried to be subtle with Jack, he wouldn't get the message._

"_Jack… Hold my hand…" Nami says. Jack, realizing that this would hinder the time it took for Nami to pry that railing from the bed, agreed and put his hand out for Nami to hold. Unfortunately, he had forgotten about Nami's current strength and soon fell victim to one more of the many pains that he would suffer in his relationship. Nami gripped his hand with enough pressure to crush a CD into a marble._

"_N-Nami… bones… breaking…" Jack says, wincing but not wanting to pull away because he would look uncaring. Nami ignored him and continued to grip his hand this way until it was aaaall over…

* * *

_

"…Oh yeah." Jack mumbles. "But, y'know, breaking my knuckles kinda hurt, too."

"Sure, 'kinda', but at least your knuckles didn't have to-"

The entire group quickly plugged their ears at this, not wishing to hear details of the event. Once they all thought it was safe, they fingers from their ears and continue to wait quietly.

"…True, but that's… in the design, right?" Jack inquires. "Knuckles aren't made to be broken."

"Maybe not, but you are." Nami grumbles.

Kate simply sat on the floor,looking down sadly and waiting for Jack and Nami to finish their conversation.

"Err… Maybe I am, but that doesn't mean that I should be…" Jack replies, finding little else to back up his side of the argument with.

"That is so pathetic. Jack, you are-" Nami begins, but she is cut off by a small voice. It spoke hardly loud enough for anyone to hear, and nobody could determine what it had said. Kate raised her head slowly and listened. Her eyes widened, and she rushes to the edge of the crevice again, looking down it.

Jack looked around, confused.

"Err, what was that?" He asks loudly, hoping that whatever it was could hear him.

"_Hey, I think I stopped falling!_" The voice repeats itself, still only barely audible.

Kate continued looking downward. Her eyes lit up as she recognized the tone fully.

"Miro!" She exclaims.

"Miro?" Jack repeats, going to the edge and squinting to see. He couldn't see him yet, but he was sure that it was him. "Miro, how did you stop falling? Did you hit the ground?"

"_No, Dad, I'm pretty sure that I would be DEAD if I hit the ground!_" The voice replies in an obvious, palpable tone.

"Then… what happened?" Kate yells down.

"_I'm not sure… It's like I'm floating or something…_" Miro says, also unsure. Matthew, who had been among the silent, staring group, looked around for any reason behind this. He found it, as well, seeing none other than the Harvest Goddess floating above the chasm, moving her hands as though she were reeling something in.

"What? Did you expect me to let him drop?" She asks, noticing the looks on the other people's faces as they also noticed her hovering there.

Before long, Miro was visible, and was floating safely over the gorge with a neat, wavery, green light underneath him to keep him floating.

"Way to ruin the moment, Miro." Jack says, smiling. "I had just dished out all of these important morales and lessons, and then you turn out to be alive. Great going."

"Shame, isn't it?" Miro replies, lying out on his back in mid-air and placing his hands behind his head smugly. "It'll take more than Hugh, Daachan, and a deep, dark pit to get rid of me, thank you."

He pauses for a moment, and then remembers something. He looks over to the Harvest Goddess.

"Wait, but aren't you supposed to be neutral?" He asks.

"The fight's over." The Goddess replies. "Hugh fell down first, meaning he lost. But if you insist…"

The green light underneath Miro suddenly vanishes. Miro blinks, and then begins to fall again.

"HEYHEYHEYWAITIDIDN'TMEANTHAT!" He yells quickly. The Goddess shrugs and causes the light to appear again, once again pulling Miro back up. He was gasping and pale now.

"That was… friggin' close…" He pants. He looks to the Goddess again. "NEVER do that!"

"Oh, fine." The Goddess says, looking put-out.

"And please put me back on solid ground…" Miro continues. Nodding, the Goddess makes Miro float over to where the others were and let him gently land on his feet. Sighing in relief, Miro looks down and wipes his forehead.

"MIRO! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Kate yells enthusiastically, tackling him with a huge hug and causing both of them to fall over the edge.

"…Ugh." The Goddess says in frustration, once again using her powers to pull them back up. Quickly, she places the two of them back on the ground, a safe distance from the gap.

"Remember, kids, glomp safely." She adds. "Well, that's my job done. Bye now!"

And with that, once again, the Goddess vanishes in a brilliant flash of light.

"…Wait, what about William?" Ricca says, looking around.

"…Wasn't he fighting somewhere on the other side of this gorge?" Matthew adds.

"Well this stinks. How're we supposed to get to him?" Kai asks.

"I will find… my own way…" Comes a voice from the other side of the crevice. Unsurprisingly, it was William, who was staggering his way toward the edge on the other side, dragging Muffy and Celia behind him.

"Oh, you're better now?" Ricca asks.

"The wounds have healed over… but I am weak from blood loss…" William replies. 'Blood loss' may have been the wrong term for it, since he knew exactly where it was, all over his shirt and a good amount on his pants. A plus, however, was that his neato white hair had not been stained.

"…Okay, what did I miss?" Miro asks, after finally prying himself from Kate's grasp. "Why does William look like he got caught in a ketchup factory explosion?"

"He was, umm… perforated by that Muffy person." Matthew explains.

"Ooh… Sounds painful." Miro says.

"…It fits that description…" William replies. He shut his eyes and causes a bridge of land to form across the chasm. He then continues dragging the two behind him and, after a short time, reaches the other side. Once he had, Ricca walks up to him, smiling.

"…Jee, Ricca's smiling wider than usual…" Matthew says.

"I didn't even know there was a usual…" Miro adds.

"Your job's done, William." Ricca says. "So… you can go back to normal, right?"

"…Now is not a good time to do so." William replies. "My abilities are needed to carry these two off, and bring this group back home safely."

"I thought that getting us back home wasn't your real mission." Ricca says.

"It was not, but I am placing the duty upon myself now." William replies. "Since the demon is no more, I can use my abilities as I wish."

"…Well, okay." Ricca says, turning away and beginning to walk back, allowing William to follow behind. "Let's get going, there's no reason for us to stay now."

"What do you mean?" Miro exclaims. "This is the Place, I worked too hard to leave it now!"

"Give it up, Miro." Ricca says. "There's people waiting for us at home, and this mall hasn't been very good luck for us. It's a nice place, but if we lived here, it would get messy. After a couple of generations, everybody would be related and would have to resort to… inbreeding."

"Eugh…" Miro says, twitching. "But… but no! I'm not giving up after I had to pound Hugh to get it!"

"Miro, it's either here or home." His father says, walking to him. "You wanna live here? Fine. But I think that everyone else is going, including Kate. It's completely up to you where you'd rather be."

Miro looked over to Kate, who paused, but then nodded.

"Oh…" Miro says. "I… I guess I've had enough of this place. Fine, let's go home."

"Good choice, Miro." Jack says. The group then began to walk away, toward the main doors. Jack stopped Miro a moment, though, and looked at him.

"Miro, I want you to have this." He says, reaching into his Rucksack and pulling something out. "Use it when you think you're ready."

Miro took the object and stared at it for a moment. It was a tiny, square, remote-control-like box with a single, unlabelled button on it. He nods and places it into his own Rucksack. They then proceed to follow the rest of the group down the hallway.

Once they reached the doors, they passed through them, some of the doors falling apart because of the sickle incident that had occurred earlier. As they walked out into the cooling, Fall air, many of the teenagers looked back at the Place that they had worked so hard to get to, and were now leaving for many different reasons, either because they came of age or didn't want to get in trouble or just because the notion of inbreeding was really, really gross… After a moment, however, they looked forward again.

"Well…" Miro begins. "We're in for a walk."

"Where should we go first?" Anna asks. "Our town or thiers?"

"Ours." Matthew replies. "More of us have to go there, anyway. Besides, I think they'll like to see it."

"How long will the walk be?" Kate asks.

"However long it took you guys to get here, I guess." Lumina says.

"Is there any good food there?" Miro asks.

"Some." Ricca replies. "There's a winery, too."

"No kidding…" Kate says, scratching her chin. "Is it just wine, or…?"

"It is based solely around wine." William states. "I have seen no evidence of any other alcoholic beverage in the boundaries of the Town."

"Aww, that's gotta stink." Miro says. "We have a Bar in our town, it has a huge variety of stuff."

"Not that we're allowed to drink it." Kate says, sighing.

"Speaking of which, Muffy helps with the bartending, so try not to knock her into too many rocks." Miro points out, looking to William. "Stack her on top of Celia or something."

Meanwhile, the adults were having their own conversation.

"Well, I'm glad that's all over." Cliff says, sighing. "I never want to see another swamp, forest, gorge, river, or teddy bear as long as I live."

"Well, we're going to have to pass through a couple of those things on the way back…" Gray says. "But we'll live."

"There's a really good shortcut we can take, don't worry." The hatted Jack says. "They took the long way."

"…Say, have you noticed how different Miro is now?" The other Jack says, looking to Nami. "He's more open than he used to be."

"Well, he's had a big experience." Nami replies. "Finding old friends, taking on huge odds, figuring out that Kate likes him…"

"Which would probably also count as 'taking on huge odds'." Jack points out. "But yeah, I see where you're going. Plus, y'know, he got to travel a bit. He got to see the world a bit, like you."

"Yep." Nami replies, moving her hand to pull a bang of hair away from her eye, but then remembering that there was none. She sighed.

"Of course, there's always a price…" She mumbles.

"Yeah…" Jack says. "But it'll grow back. And we could always patch up your vest."

"…Wait, you were the one that freaked out when those things happened," Nami recalls. "Why're you so calm about it now?"

"I got over it." Jack replies, shrugging. "Besides, it kinda makes you look punk."

"You think?" Nami replies. "…Yay, I'm a punk mother of a teenage boy."

"That's the spirit!" Jack replies, smiling. Nami smirks back, mostly just for his stupidity.

* * *

The chasm in the mall remained still and silent, without a breath of sound inside it. It was hauntingly dark inside, and quite an odd thing to be in a mall. Even though it was so big and empty-looking, it seemed to conceal a subtle fear. This fear revealed itself, as well, as a tiny red glow emanated from deep within…

* * *

As the groups were talking, they were cut off by a scream of rage from behind them. It was distant, but so loud it could be heard clearly. As they turned around to see what it was, they saw a portion of the mall's roof burst off in a shower of fire and debris. 

"No…" The teenagers mutter, watching as a small figure was revealed in the smoke and dust. Although a bit too distant to determine fully, the red shirt and blonde hair showed who it was quite well. None other than Hugh was floating above the large hole he had smashed through the roof of the Mall, a red aura surrounding him. Most of them were confused as to how Hugh was doing this, until they noticed something. Daachan's red, shining eyes were placed in front of Hugh's own, supplying Hugh's body with the amazing power he had just shown.

"**I'm back…**" He proclaims, his voice warped demonically by the influence of Daachan's power. "**And boy… am I… PISSED!**"


	29. Part, Umm, Forget It, A COOL PART!

(This one is also a bit late, but it's an improvement. Okay, enough talk, let's get this started! Ah, and please don't neglect me the pleasure of reading your reviews!)

The group remains still for a moment, keeping their eyes fixed on the distant figure of Hugh. He remained floating over a still-smoking area of the roof, and although they couldn't quite see it, his fists were clenched and he was at the peak of his rage. Daachan's shining eyes quickly locked their gaze toward the group a distance away and both it and Hugh had similar intentions.

"So, who do you he'll go for first…?" Miro asks meekly.

"You." Ricca replies. "He's pretty much intent on killing you, anyway."

"Yeah, but…" Miro begins. "I mean, why not William? I'm sure that Daachan has quite a beef with him…"

"Naah, it's gonna be you." Matthew says, him and the rest of the group, including William, beginning to shuffle a distance away from Miro.

"You're the one who took Daachan out first." Kate points out.

"…Glad to see that everyone's on my side…" Miro says, looking around at the group who had each put themselves a good ten meters away from himself.

Hugh, meanwhile, finally took action and began zooming toward the group at an amazing speed.

"…Do you think this is going to hurt?" Miro asks, remaining still.

"Oh yeah." Kate says, nodding.

"Great…" Miro mutters, sighing. He waits for a moment and, before he could take action even if he was actually going to, was smashed by a huge shoulder check courtesy of Hugh. Miro went sprawling backward, tumbling and rolling with flailing arms until he made a comparatively soft landing on the grass quite a few meters away.

"…Jeez, I nearly felt that." Matthew mutters. Deciding to take action, he opens up Anna's backpack and finds a taser among her many items. Sneaking as carefully as he could behind Hugh, he quickly drives the taser into his back and turns on the power. Violent sparking could be heard, but Hugh only laughs.

"**You're pretty stupid, aren't you?**" He asks, quickly turning around and grabbing the arm that Matthew held the device in. "**Don't kid yourself thinking that you can beat me!**"

He lifts Matthew's arm up, swings him once with as much ease as someone could swing a small pillow, and throws him, hard, into Anna. They both hit the ground in a heap, stunned.

"**I will burn you to cinders!**" He shouts, holding his arms in front of himself.

"Hmm, he knows the word 'cinders'." Ricca mutters. "Pretty impressive for a troglodyte."

Suddenly, Daachan's power allows Hugh's arms to catch fire, and he releases a huge stream of flame toward the unconscious two.

"Find safety." William suddenly says, holding one hand out and causing Anna and Matthew to vanish from sight. The fire passes over where they were, but once it had dissipated, nothing lay there but charred grass.

Hugh growls and turns his, or rather Daachan's, eyes toward him.

"**Oh, so you want to ruin the fun?**" He hisses.

"I will not allow you to harm these people. They remain under my protection." William states, stepping toward him. He was still considerably weakened, but was making his best effort to disguise it. "And you, the demon, and your host are evil. My mission is not complete until I have destroyed you."

"**Ooh, big talker!**" Hugh replies mockingly. "**Look at yourself, Whitey, you're in the crappiest condition here!**"

"_I beg to differ…_" Miro mutters, still lying on the ground a distance away. Hugh ignores him and continues.

"**But if you wanna go, we'll go! C'mon, gimme your best shot!**" Hugh says. William complies and quickly summons roots to tie around Hugh's legs. Hugh smirks and crosses his arms, not yet moving.

"You will meet your end." William says, his entire body beginning to glow blue. He shuts his eyes, making a large number of icicles form upward from the ground, each with sharp points. He then raises his arms and they detatch from the ground, floating around and circling Hugh with their points aimed toward him. He then lowers his arms swiftly and the icicles shoot toward Hugh at all angles.

Instead of moving, Hugh allows Daachan to do the work. The aura that surrounded Hugh suddenly intensified, both burning away the roots and melting the icicles so quickly that they never had time to touch Hugh.

"**Oh, is that all?**" Hugh says, sounding disappointed. "**What a shame. Oh well, time to beat the bleach out of you.**"

He begins walking toward William. Quickly, William summons up another of his flaming root-blade things in one hand and a sharp spear made from pointed bone in the other.

"Ooh, that's pretty neat." Popuri comments. "I didn't know that bones counted as nature stuff…"

"Y'learn something new everyday." Kai says.

"Nobody cares, you two." Nami points out. "Now just watch the fight, we need to know when we'll have to run."

William makes a lunging motion with the spear, but Hugh catches it with ease and pulls it away from him. He then breaks it in his hand and throws it to the ground. Undeterred, William swings his blade and nearly catches Hugh off-guard, But Hugh manages to pull his head back just in time to only receive a small nick on the cheek, coincidentally in the same exact spot that Miro's female alter-self had nicked him previously, so it stung a bit more.

"**Oww…**" Hugh mumbles. He then smirks. "**Tch, what's with you bunch and cutting my cheek? Oh, but thanks for reminding me.**"

With that, he focuses Daachan's power, using it to effortlessly heal the cut, leaving nothing at all behind. He then takes one more step toward William.

"**But back to the point.**" He continues, his smirk still present. William tries to step back and slash at him again, but by the time he raised his weapon, Hugh swung his arm at it and smashed it forcefully into flaming pieces. William cringed and held the now-injured wrist that he had the weapon attached to, staggering back slightly. Before he could do much more, Hugh thrust his arm out and grabbed William by the throat, lifting him off of his feet.

"**You're really not as tough as I thought.**" Hugh says in disappointment, chuckling a bit. "**Are you seriously this weak?**"

"No." William replies simply, despite his throat being in Hugh's grasp. He places one hand directly in front of Hugh's face, the hand beginning to glow blue. Before Hugh could do much to react, William causes a sphere of water to appear, Hugh's head directly inside it. He then shuts his eyes and makes the water freeze, encasing Hugh's cranium within. In surprise, Hugh drops William, who lands on his knee but quickly stands up again.

William then glows a shade of brown and shuts his eyes once more, causing the earth below Hugh to rise up around his legs and hold him in place. Before he could do anything else, though, Hugh swings his fist, strinking William and sending him to the right. He hit the ground hard and remained there, breathing heavily.

"William!" Ricca exclaims, running toward him. She reached William quickly and kneeled down beside him.

William kept his eyes closed, attempting to steady his breathing.

"William, are you okay?" Ricca asks, lifting his head in her arm and placing her knee underneath.

"…It is no use." William says weakly, slowly opening his eyes to look up at Ricca. "…I am too weakened to use my power to its fullest extent…"

"Well… Wh-what can you do?" Ricca asks. "Nobody here is strong enough to fight that guy but you, but if you keep on fighting…"

"There is no other choice." William says. "I will have to… transfer my power to someone else."

"…Oh." Ricca says. "I thought you were going to say that you'd have to fight him to the death. But yeah, transferring power would be better."

Hugh clenches his fists, the glow of Daachan's eyes visible through the ice. He suddenly yells, and the ice shatters into pieces, hitting the ground around him.

"**Very cute…**" He mutters angrily.

"I must hurry…" William says.

"Who will you give it to?" Ricca asks.

The entire group in the background immediately raised their hands.

"It must be someone… who has experience in fighting Hugh, and the demon." William says. "Someone who can find their weaknesses."

The group all groan and grumble in disappointment, lowering their hands.

"_Oh, crap…_" Miro mumbles, knowing what was coming up.

"It… will have to be Miro." William says finally.

"Miro? Why not me?" Ricca asks. "I'm probably a better fighter than him, even without knowing exactly what their weaknesses are."

"You may be correct…" William mutters. "but I cannot bestow you with this power. It would be placing you in a danger which I could not allow. You are a high priority."

Ricca widened her eyes slightly, and then smiled, nodding a bit.

"So… You're putting Miro up instead, just to protect me?" She asks.

"Yes." William says.

"That's… so nice for you to do…" Ricca says softly.

"_NO IT'S NOT!_" Miro yells.

"I don't think this is the time for low priorities to be talking!" Ricca snaps, looking at the still-sprawled-out Miro. She returns her gaze to William.

"But Miro is hurt, too. Wouldn't he have just as bad a chance as you?" She asks.

"Incorrect…" William replies. "His body will be healed in the transfer."

"Okay. Hurry, we don't have much time." Ricca says. William nods and slowly closes his eyes.

A pure white glow began to emanate around William, very weakly at first, but then increasing in strength. Along with the glow, white sparkles began to escape from William's body. They swirl around him for a while, collecting more and more until they were a large, glowing sphere. As the sparkles escaped William, he began to change. His expressionless face softened, slowly becoming more human, and his hair began to darken from white to brown.

"…**Hold on, what the hell am I waiting for?**" Hugh asks himself. Quickly, he kicks his legs out to smash the earth that they were trapped in and begins walking to them, smirking.

"Hurry…" Ricca urges. Finally, every last bit of power had left William, and was now floating above them in a large, glowing ball of energy. The ball began to move toward Miro. Hugh noticed this and dashed at it, jumping and trying to punch the sphere. However, as soon as a fist landed, he was hit with a surge of energy from the ball. He winced and fell back, looking up at it angrily.

"**Okay, mental note: Don't touch the ball of energy.**" Hugh says to himself, looking directly at it. "**Let's fry it, Daachan!**"

With that, the glow of Daachan's eyes intensified, and fired beams much like what the giant Daachan did. However, they simply bounced off, not doing a thing to it. Daachan itself realised something and telepathically gave the message to Hugh.

"…**Oh, I get it. Your power and that power are opposite, so you can't hurt each other. But how come it hurt me? …Oh, right, I'm human, so those powers can hurt me. So I should just wait? Okay.**"

The glowing white sphere made its way to Miro, floating above him. It then came down on Miro in small sparkles like before. Miro began to feel something. He felt… lighter. Somehow less injured. He began to sit up, but once his body was healed, the ball came crashing down on him, resulting in a huge flash of light. The light began to dissipate as its energy seeped into Miro. Once it had done so completely, he was revealed to be standing there, facing Hugh, looking almost the same as he was, but his hair was a less intense red, like it had been mixed in with a bit of white. Also, his eyes seemed sharp, and his skin a slightly paler, yet healthy tone.

"Oh… HELL YES!" He exclaims, a smile planted on his face. "I feel so friggin' cool right now!"

"Umm… Why does he still have emotion?" Elli asks, tilting her head.

"It must be different for different people or something." Cliff replies, quite unsure himself.

"Now… witness my power!" Miro exclaims, planting his feet on the ground and beginning to growl in focus. He continued doing so, as a golden aura surrounded him, and began to intensify. Finally, he let out a shout and his hair became a bright gold, pointing straight upward and-

"QUIT SHOWBOATING!" Kate yells angrily.

"…Sorry." Miro says, the aura vanishing and his hair going back to slightly-lighter-than-normal. He continues looking at Hugh, and decides to try something. Holding one hand out, palm-up, he causes a small sphere of blue light to appear above it. The light solidifies into a normal-sized ball of packed snow, which falls into his palm.

"**Heh, you're going to open up with a snowball?**" Hugh asks incredulously, his chuckling warped evilly by Daachan's influence.

"'A snowball'?" Miro replies, smirking. He throws the snowball, upward toward Hugh. It was a very high shot, and Hugh's first impression was that he simply missed by a ridiculous amount, but then something very unexpected happened. The snowball suddenly unpacked itself directly above Hugh, revealing at least three tons of powdery snow.

"…**Oh.**" Hugh mutters, the snow suddenly coming down on him all at once, in a huge heap.

"BOO YEAH!" Miro exclaims, shaking his fist in triumph. "It's the opening set, and Miro's up by one big point!"

Just then, two beams of red light shoot out from the snow, hitting Miro directly in the chest. Miro cringes as the beams continue trying to bore into him, and after a moment he staggers out of their way.

"Ooooh…" Miro says, looking down at the two burnt holes now in his shirt. "That smarts…"

"Don't fool around!" Kate warns him. "You don't know how strong Hugh and Daachan are!"

"I've fought them both, how tough could they be together?" Miro asks.

At that moment, the snow pile explodes, revealing Hugh yet again. He didn't seem phased, other than being angrier than he previously was. Daachan's eyes were still blazing, and didn't seem to have lost power due to the beam they had just fired.

"**You stupid fool. Don't you get it?**" Hugh asks. "**You can't beat me! I'm the Alpha Male of Forget-Me-Not Valley!**"

"Well, you're defintely a brute…" Miro mutters, getting himself into a ready position.

"**And you're a runt!**" Hugh retorts. "**Now, enough talk, let's finish this for good!**"

* * *

Slowly, the blurred, faded lights come into focus, and Matthew finds himself on a cold, hard floor, lying partially on top of the still-unconscious Anna. He blinks and attempts to shake some of the grogginess off.

"Ugh… Heh, some party…" He mutters, chuckling. He then recalls what had happened, and gasps. Trying to look around, he notices where he was. He was back at the mall, in a hallway that they hadn't explored yet. The gorge was within distant sight down one end of the hall, as was the gaping hole in the roof that Hugh had created.

"What…? How did…" He wonders to himself, slowly getting up and into a sitting position next to Anna. As he tried to recollect himself and wonder what exactly had happened, Anna slowly began to re-awaken as well. Groaning, she squints her eyes tight and began to shift around. Matthew looks to her, waiting for her to wake up.

Anna finally does, slowly opening her eyes. She sees Matthew, and then looks around, confused.

"Where are we? What are we doing here…?" She asks.

"We're at the mall again." Matthew says. "I'm not sure how, but there's probably some reason… What's the last thing you can remember?"

"Umm… You asking me 'What's the last thing you can remember?'." Anna states.

"…Before that." Matthew says, sighing. "Before we ended up here."

"Oh." Anna says, nodding in understanding. She gets up to a sitting position and thinks for a moment "Umm… Oh, you were flying. You were coming toward me, and then… Oww."

"Oww?" Matthew echoes, confused.

"Yeah. I just remember getting this big bump on my- Yeow!" Anna suddenly exclaims, after pointing to an area of her forehead and accidentally poking a lump that she didn't know was there. Matthew just notices it, too.

"Ooh… Wait, do I have one, too?" He asks. Anna notices a goose-egg that Matthew was also sporting and nods.

"Then I guess we hit into each other…" Anna states.

"Yes…" Matthew agrees. The memory suddenly comes back to him. "Oh, that's right! Hugh, he lifted me and threw me into you!"

"Oh yeah…" Anna says, nodding. "But then he… but then why are we here?"

"I'm not sure…" Matthew says. "But there's no need to worry about it right now. We should get back, I don't know how long we were out for."

"Do you think we're too late?" Anna asks. "I mean, he looked pretty tough, I don't know if they could last a long time…"

"I don't know…" Matthew admits. "But I'm sure that William wouldn't let him hurt anyone."

"But William was really hurt already…" Anna points out. "And he didn't exactly come to your rescue."

"…Maybe he did." Matthew says, looking around once more. "It would make sense… Come on, Anna, we should get back."

The two teens stand up on their feet, stretching a bit before proceeding down the hall opposite the gorge.

* * *

As Hugh and Miro began to fight, the rest of the group cleared off to give some space to the competitors. Two people who didn't move, however, were Ricca and William. William had passed out from weakness, but slowly recovered, opening his eyes to Ricca. He gasped, and looked at Ricca intently.

"R-Ricca! I remember everything, I'm so sorry…" He stammers out. Ricca looks at him and smiles.

"Shh, don't worry…" She says. "You're back, and that's all that matters."

"No… No…" Wiliam mutters. "I put the fake orders of my parents above you all… I don't know how I could have been so-"

"You couldn't tell. You didn't know better." Ricca reassures him, calmly stroking his hair. She was acting quite calm; obviously if Miro or someone else had done something along those lines, Ricca would have never forgiven them without some form of harsh punishment.

Thankfully, Miro and Hugh were trading shots a distance away, and were not in any way disturbing this little moment. This, perhaps, was either a random chance, out of respect, or a creeping fear that both competitors had of what Ricca might do to them if they got too close.

"But I… I had control, but I still hurt you. I could have prevented myself from-" William begins. Ricca, not about to allow William to put more stress on himself than he was already going through, quickly cuts him off.

"Will you quit that?" She snaps. "I know for a fact that if you knew of any other way… if you could have seen any way to keep me safe without hurting me, you would!"

"But-"

"Even if you're not sure, I am!" Ricca says, sounding quite strong of her opinion. "You never showed it, but I saw the real you in there…"

"…You believe that…" William says, almost in a questioning tone. Lowering his gaze, he thought for a moment. He himself, with his re-discovered emotion, was very surprised that Ricca could be so forcefully forgiving. Of course, being forceful was well within her nature…

"Yes, William, I do…" Ricca says. She gave a smirk, the kind that she gave when she acted like the usual Ricca. "I mean, you're way too much of a softie to hurt me too badly."

William chuckled weakly, and looked up to Ricca. A smile was now etched onto his face, which was risky for him to do because after not smiling for weeks, he could've very well pulled a muscle.

"Ricca… Why are you being like this?" William asks, the question deciding to bring itself up. "You're not usually like this, not around other people for sure…"

"…You're not other people." Ricca replies, her smirk becoming a warmer smile. "You're a high priority."

"Heh… That much I managed to get through…" William states. "And I wasn't kidding… Ricca, I… I think it's time that I said… I-"

"I get the idea." Ricca reassures him. "If you didn't, would we have had all of those talks? Those meetings? That moment at the Fireworks Festival… By the way, Matthew saw us at a lot of those, it seems…"

"What? Oh, great…" William mutters. "I suppose we should hurt him badly once we find him…"

"Yes." Ricca agrees. Slowly, casually, she leans a bit closer to William. "But right now… Let's have a talk…"

"Good idea…" William agrees, and with lack of being able to raise his own head, allowing and helping Ricca to do so.

"A close talk…" Ricca adds softly. After a moment, a mere three inches separated their faces when…

"GANGWAY!" Miro yells as he is sent flying toward the two at a ridiculous speed, most likely from some attack of Hugh's. Ricca gasps and makes a quick decision.

"…Oh screw it!" She says, quickly lowering her head and meeting lips with William. This had killed two birds with one stone, by both finally kissing William and ducking under Miro's flailing body.

_That… helped speed things up… _William thinks to himself, shutting his eyes and hoping that this moment wouldn't have to be interrupted again.

As this time of unbounded emotion occurred, Hugh was stepping toward Miro again, with Ricca and William right in the middle.

"**Hey, kiddies, unlock those lips!**" He demands, continuing to walk forward. "**We're fighting here!**"

Miro, having quickly recovered from the blow he had suffered a moment ago, happily used his newfound powers in a display of physical ability that he definitely did not have otherwise. He made a bounding leap over Ricca and William, with a front flip added for style, and landed a few meters in front of them, facing Hugh.

"Leave them alone!" He warns. "If you disturb them, you're not going to live!"

"**Yeah? And what're you going to do?**" Hugh asks, smirking.

"That's not what I mean." Miro corrects him. "If you ruin this moment, Ricca will surely kill us all!"

"**Pssh, please…**"Hugh mutters. He takes one more step forward, but is quickly met by Ricca's penetating glare, coming from the eye that Hugh could see. He stops, and seems to consult mentally with Daachan for a moment.

"…**Okay, maybe you're right.**" He finally says. "**The power of a mean teenage girl might just be a threat to us…**"

"I thought you'd agree." Miro says. He quickly gets into a fighting stance again.

The rest of the group, having heard this even from the safe distance they were at, seemed a bit confused.

"…Why would Hugh be concerned of what a normal girl could do to him?" Kate asks, trying to think up any good reason.

"Hmm…" Gray begins, putting a hand to his chin and lowering his cap in thought. "…It's like that… that thing, the eyes, what's it's name…"

"Daachan." Nami says.

"Daachan then…" Gray says, nodding. "It's more like it's concerned with the matter…"

"Yes, it is…" Mary says in agreement, also beginning to think. "It's as though Daachan itself wants to keep away from Ricca. The jock boy-"

"Hugh." Kate corrects her.

"Okay, Hugh…" Mary says. "Hugh seemed fine with it until Daachan told him something…"

But back to the cool part, Hugh was also putting himself into a fighting stance.

"**You should give up.**" He says. "**We're tougher than you, even with Whitey's power, and you know it!**"

"You're a crappy liar, Hugh. We're on equal terms. The Goddess gave just enough power to equal Daachan, and I have just enough smarts to equal your strength. Besides, what can I say?" Miro says, his eyes narrowing and a determined grin spreading across his face. "I'm stubborn."


	30. Still the Cool Part

"Hummm…" Went a pondering Matthew as he walked down the halls, eyes lowered in thought. He and Anna had been walking through the mall for at least ten minutes, and had managed to completely lose their orientation in less than two. This place was far more complex than they had given it credit for. And, it seemed that the only route to the entrance was on the other side of the gorge, which they had long-since lost sight of. Matthew suddenly remembers something.

"…There was a bridge across that gorge. Dammit!" He yells, unable to believe that he, the presumed smart guy of the group, had forgotten such a simple thing. It was too late now, though. They had forgotten their way and were now drifting aimlessly down the halls, between random, vacant stores and restaurants and trinket shops…

Anna, who was walking beside Matthew, looks at him in some concern after hearing his exclamation.

"It's okay, Matthew. There has to be some way out." She reassures him. "I mean, who puts only one exit in a big building?"

"Prisons…" Matthew mutters. "They may have designed the building with only one exit to keep the customers in longer, so they buy more things…"

"Who is 'they'?" Anna asks, putting a finger to her chin and looking up in thought. "Why's there a mall here in the first place?"

"I'm sure I don't know." Matthew replies, shrugging a bit. "It's a bit weird, isn't it? A mall here in the middle of nowhere and a path to it somehow being drawn out on the backs of every male and female member of your family…"

"…Oh, I know!" Anna says suddenly, her eyes widening in joy of being able to answer Matthew's question. "I bet the Harvest Goddess planned it out, and had the Harvest Sprites build it!"

"…Seems like a pretty big job for just a bunch of Sprites." Matthew says, looking around. "Then again… If there are more Sprites in other towns and the Goddess had them all band together to build it, and if it were made before your father first found it… that would mean they had had the time to do so… You know, I think you're right, Anna."

"I knew it." Anna says confidently, her face gleaming. Suddenly, she notices something up ahead, and heads toward it at a run. Matthew watches her as she speeds toward what looked like a podium of some sort, but on closer inspection was, in fact, a map on a stand.

"We are here!" Anna proclaims, pointing at a part of the map that had those very words printed on it. Matthew, slightly confused, walks to the map and looks at the spot where Anna was pointing.

"…How do they know where we are…?" Matthew asks, looking around in confusion. "Are they following us?"

"I'm not sure…" Anna says, also looking around in paranoia. After a moment, she cautiously re-directs her eyes to the map. "But… it says there's another exit a few hallways down. And look," She continues, pointing at a large room that was along the path they would have to take. Matthew looks and tilts his head slightly.

"What is that…?" He says.

"Well, it says 'storage', but it looks a bit too big to be a closet…" Anna begins. She and Matthew look at each other for a moment, then quickly look away, clearing their throats and continuing.

"Well, it's not really that important." Matthew concludes. "We should just focus on getting back to the group."

Anna nods, although still wondering what could be in such a large storage room, and after the two had quickly memorized the path they had to take, they ran off down the hall.

* * *

"Heh… This is getting fun." Miro says as he ducks under yet another swing from Hugh. They were on equal terms so far, as no major blows had been landed in the past while. Some highlights of the past ten minutes of combat were when Hugh grabbed Miro by the hair, Miro grabbed Hugh by the nostrils, and they spent three minutes yanking one another in a two-sided headlock until they made a mutual agreement to let go. In the meantime, Ricca had managed to help William get a safer distance away and were both presently among the rest of the group again.

Miro aims a swing at Hugh himself, which was evaded by a quick back step. He also does a rather stylish back flip in order to gain some distance from him and lands easily back on his feet.

Miro, suddenly getting quite a clever idea, holds out one hand. The hand begins to glow a deep blue. Suddenly, a lightning bolt fires off from his hand and toward Hugh. Hugh quickly sidesteps out of its path, but the group behind him wasn't so lucky.

"Oh, crap!" The hatted Jack exclaims.

"Aaah!" Ann shouts, taking her husband and holding him in front of her to block the attack. After a bright flash of light, Jack is seen virtually unharmed, although his tuft of hair now looked like a sea urchin attached to his head. Apparently, it had taken the hit.

"Whatever you do…" Nami warns him, "don't comb."

"Nn-nnn…" Jack whimpers, not wanting to move for fear of his hair becoming grounded and frying him like the food in one of Karen's barbecues…

"Hmph." Miro says, put-out by the fact that Hugh could dodge something like a lightning bolt. He suddenly gets an idea. Grinning, he holds his hands to one side, palms facing one another and fingers in a position much like if he were holding an invisible ball with both hands.

"Let's try something…" He says, his grin widening as electricity began to spark between his hands. The sparking was becoming more and more violent as time passed.

"**Heh. You've got it!"** Hugh says, Daachan's eyes glowing more intensely once again.

At the same time, Miro held out his hands, releasing a massive stream of lightning, and Hugh fired a large beam from Daachan's eyes. The two attacks collided between them, and pushed at one another with intense force.

"I can't believe it. These guys are fooling around!" Elli says in exasperation.

"They just want to look impressive." Nami says. "Let them get it out, it's good for them."

"Well, at least one of them is going to be dead at the end of this." Cliff reminds her.

"I suppose…" Nami replies, shrugging. "Then I guess it'll be good for one of them."

"Umm… Shouldn't we give them a bit of extra space?" Kate asks. "Miro has already nearly roasted one of us."

The Jack that she had been referring to nodded carefully in agreement, his hair floating slowly with his motions. The group began to move, but they are halted by a warning from William.

"Wait, be careful." He says. "There's a reason that I didn't use electricity when I had that power. It's un-"

Suddenly, a jagged cord of electricity coming from the original bolt shoots at them, striking one of Nami's pockets and completely shattering the Teleport Stone inside. Some shards of it flew from the singed pocket and landed in the surrounding grass.

"…stable." William finishes lamely, quite sure that they understood now.

"Nami! Are you okay?" Her husband exclaims, in the midst of trying to decide what he should do.

"I… ugh, I'm fine…" Nami says, reaching her hand into the pocket carefully. She pulls out a few broken shards of the Teleport Stone. "…but there goes our trip home."

"Are you sure you're all right?" Elli asks. "You seem to be in a bit of pain…"

It was true. Nami didn't try to contain her wince, and she seemed reluctant to put much weight on her leg.

"…A little." She admits. "But what's a first-degree burn after dodging what Kate here nearly hit me with back in that forest?" She looks at Kate, who smiled a bit. Suddenly, Kate looks at William.

"Doesn't control over the elements have something to do with being able to control them?" She asks, a bit angrily.

"I tried." William replies. "And with practice I'm sure I could have used lightning just as easily as the others, but I had no time for that. That power is different from other parts of nature. It takes focus to make it go in the right direction and not just shoot off at anything metal nearby. Or magical items, I suppose…"

"That's all very nice, but we have to hurry and get out range!" Kai reminds them.

"And that is where the problem lies." William says. "If we move too fast, the lightning's going to pick up the static energy of our feet against the grass, and we're toast."

"Then we'll get something else to attract it!" Ann says. Quickly, she reaches her hand into Popuri's hair and pulls out a hairpin, thankfully not causing her hair to go flat.

"Hey!" Popuri protests, "I need those!"

"Feel your neck." Ann instructs. Popuri does so, and suddenly gasps.

"I don't have that cramp anymore!" She says happily.

"It wasn't a cramp, it was this." Ann corrects her, pointing to the pin in her hand.

"But, how did you know?"

"I started to get curious when you mentioned that 'it feels like a hairpin stuck in my neck or something' for the first time." Ann comments. Popuri, remembering this, snaps her fingers like she was just about to guess that.

Without wasting any more time, Ann throws the hairpin up in the air. As she predicted, once it was close enough, some of the lightning was drawn to it, causing it to spark and hiss in mid-air.

"Okay, now let's go!" Ann orders. The rest of the group immediately do so, Ricca helping William along and Nami collecting the shards of the stone that fell from her singed pocket. Once they had gotten a safe range back, they turn around and continue watching the battle proceed.

After a moment, the hairpin burst apart from the power of the electricity. Even so, and as Miro quickly came to notice, he was failing to gain any ground on Hugh. In fact, it was Hugh's attack that was doing so. It was slowly pushing its way through the force of Miro's lightning and threatened to break through at any moment. Miro came to a decision, seeing that he couldn't continue this for much longer, and cancelled his attack, ducking down to the floor quickly and letting Hugh's attack pass over him. It was a very narrow miss, and Miro thought for a moment that he could smell burnt hair. At least, that's what he hoped it was.

After Hugh had cancelled his own attack, Miro breathed a sigh of relief. He was sitting on one knee, and cautiously raised his head back up to check if it was safe. Sadly, it wasn't. Hugh stood directly in front of him, and before Miro could react, had pulled back a leg and booted him squarely in the chin. Miro soared backward quite a few feet, and landed hard on his back before sliding to a stop.

"**Ooh, that must've hurt,"** Hugh comments, tapping the dirt off of his shoes absently. "**It's too bad that you're not much of a competitor. This is getting boring**."

Miro chuckles rather dryly as he got himself back up on his feet. He feels his jaw for a moment and discovers that it wasn't broken. Perhaps the calcium one gets from drinking Star Cow milk was worth the absurd price of the cow; which his father had grumbled over ever since he bought one instead of a Seed Maker, leaving the farm nearly broke and Nami none-too-pleased for a couple of months.

"Not much of a competitor?" Miro echoes, lowering his hand from his jaw and speaking matter-of-factly. "That's not exactly true, once you think about Lumina. I didn't even try to get her attention, yet she has more attention drawn to me than to you. The whole reason that you're doing this is because I'm too good a competitor to have around. How about this; Get rid of Daachan, and we can settle this in a nice way."

"**Grr…"** Hugh growls to Miro, Daachan seeming to protest the idea since Hugh looked like he was listening to something for a moment. After the moment, he looks at Miro again. **"…Hmph. No thanks, Dr. Phil. Daachan's fine where he is. I'm following my own plan."**

"Then I guess we'll just keep fighting." Miro says with a shrug. "What do you want to try this time?"

"**I don't know. Any ideas?**" Hugh asks, flexing and cracking the fingers of his right hand.

"How about weapons?" Miro suggests.

"**I left the Soul Irritant back at the mall…**" Hugh mutters, realizing how useful the weapon would have been at that point.

Miro chuckles, one of his hands beginning to glow purple.

"Aww, too bad," he says, suddenly dashing at Hugh and forming a spike of ice on his hand at the same instant. Although Hugh managed to get most of himself out of the way in time. Miro still managed to pierce Hugh's shoulder with the blade. Both competitors were still for a moment after this.

Lumina gasps, her eyes widened. Kate, who was standing next to her, notices this.

"Hm. It seems like you've had a change of heart." She says. "You've spent years obsessing over Miro, and now you've switched to Hugh in an hour?"

"Well, I… I didn't know he-" Lumina begins hesitantly. Kate cuts her off, not eager to hear her excuse.

"You've been ignoring him. I'm sure you had some idea that he liked you, but you tossed it aside. Do you realize how insane a prepless jock can become?"

"…As insane as a wimpless bully." Lumina mutters, looking at Kate. "You're not the queen of nice, you know. It could have just as easily been your fault…"

"I'm sure he's smart enough to not have a vengeful fit of jealousy. Besides, Miro's not a wimp…" Kate says defensively, her mind going back to previous events, before any feelings between her and Miro had been discovered. "…I just… thought he was…"

"You see?" Lumina says, "This could have been anyone!"

"You're right. I remember, Miro got really mad at one point of the fight, and he had become so strong he was making sport out of Hugh…" Kate says, shifting her foot on the ground. "Who knows, maybe if I had done too much, it would have pushed him to that… and if things went the same as they did here, only with Miro as the evil one, this would have been even worse."

"But it was Hugh, and it was my fault…" Lumina grudgingly admits, not wanting to leave Kate being sad. "Nobody would have been hurt if it wasn't for me."

"Still…" Kate begins. She then changes her mind and comes to a conclusion, crossing her arms. "Still, if we had to point fingers, this is all one person's fault!"

"Ah, yes." Lumina says, smiling and putting her hands behind her back. They both chorus out the same name.

"Daachan!"

Back at the fight, Hugh finally made a move by forcefully pushing Miro away, the ice pulled from Hugh's shoulder in the process. Miro lands on his feet after a moment and slides to a stop, cheerily surveying the damage that he had caused. Hugh's shoulder had a grisly hole through it, the ice having passed through skin and bone. However, Hugh kept a tough face on, and spoke with an air of boredom.

"**Oh, Daachan…"** He begins. Daachan obeys and, as it had done for all of Hugh's wounds, used its power to completely seal it up in a matter of seconds, the only visible proof of any wound having been there being the dried blood that hadn't been re-absorbed into the wound.

"Dammit…" Miro says in half-shock, taking a step or two back. "It can… still do that?"

"**Yep**." Hugh says with a chuckle. "**And Daachan tells me that you can't, because your power is all inside you. My power is inside Daachan, so he can use it on me in a bunch of ways**."

"…How does that work?" Miro says in confusion. Hugh sighs, and seems to communicate with Daachan for a moment. After a moment, he nods, and looks paitently at Miro.

"…**Okay, you see, we used to be two mortals, right? We had all of the mortal qualities. But now, we're different, but in different ways.**" He begins, taking in a breath. "**Since I have Daachan attached to me, I can tap into his power whenever I need to. But you, you have power inside of yourself, which is like a part of you now. Since you're all demi-godly and stuff, your body is stronger than it was, but that means your body takes a whole lot longer to heal with its own power. My body's also a lot stronger, but that's just because Daachan makes it that way, and it's Daachan's power that heals me and not my own. Got it?**"

"…Yeah, I think." Miro says, heaving a frustrated sigh. "Man, they should have a written contract or something for this damn power!"

"They do." William calls over. "My parents had to sign it before-"

"Shaddup!" Miro yells.

* * *

"Are you sure we had to take that right?"

"Yes."

"'Cause I remember we have to take an awful lot of lefts…"

"I know. The lefts come after the rights."

"I thought the rights came after the lefts…"

"No, I'm positive that the rights come first."

"How?"

"Trust me, Anna. I have a photographic memory."

"Eww! You mean you remember-"

"PHOTOgraphic…"

"Oh…"

Matthew and Anna, after several minutes of running, had tired down and slowed to a walk. They now spent careful time deliberating the paths they had to take to ensure that they would not get lost again. Despite Anna's uncertainty toward the path they had just taken, they soon after came across another 'You Are Here' map.

"Oh, crap, they're following us…" Matthew says after noticing the arrow indeed did show exactly where they were.

"But look, we're on the right track!" Anna says, pointing out the fact. "The exit should just be… around that corner!"

"Let's go!" Matthew says him and Anna once again going at a run. Once they had rounded the corner and rushed to the end of the hall, they came to a windowless door. Matthew seemed excited, however Anna, reading the sign above the door, sighed in disappointment.

"…Hey, what is it, Anna?" Matthew asks, noticing and looking at her.

"It's a fire exit…" Anna says, pointing to the sign above the door. "See?"

"…Okay, yes, but… So?" Matthew says, confused.

"We can't use it, there's no fire…" Anna explains.

"…Anna, I doubt if we'll be caught." Matthew says, sighing. "The mall is abandoned. The number of security guards on duty at any given time tends to drop drastically when that happens."

"But still, it's against the rules…" Anna says uncertainly, looking at the door. "I mean, we can't just break the rules because nobody's here. They're there for a reason…"

"Oh, come on…" Matthew says disbelievingly, walking to the door and reaching for it. "Look, it's perfectly allowable if the building in which the exit is situated within is condemned or otherwise-"

Matthew is interrupted in his speech, however, by a rather startling and powerful electric shock courtesy of the door's handle. He is flung back a few feet and lands on the ground, his back to the floor. Anna walks up to him and looks down, smiling.

"Told you," she comments. Matthew merely grumbles and gets up slowly, shaking his head and making sure his cap was in place. He holds one hand out to Anna.

"Anna, hold my finger." He instructs.

"Heh, I'm not falling for that one!" Anna says. "Not since Grandpa got tipsy in the Spring Festival and-"

"I meant…" Matthew cuts in. "Just touch it. I need to be grounded."

"Grounded?"

"It's scientific. Now, please…?" He asks. Anna, reluctantly, reached out one hand and grabbed Matthew's finger. She received a bit of a shock as the electricity passed through her and went into the floor, causing the lights to flicker, but it passed quite quickly.

"Th-that was… interesting…" Anna says, letting go of him and beginning to giggle in a way that only people either recently electrified or on some major sugar-high could do. "I'm all tingly now…"

"Thank you." Matthew relipes simply. Turning, he looks to the door again. As he tried to calculate what he could possibly do to decharge the door, Anna turned around and snuck away from him, going back up the hall. When she found the door that she was looking for, she reached out and turned the handle, thankfully finding it neither locked nor electrified. Opening the door, she stares into the room and was immediately filled with excitement.

"Matthew!" She calls, turning and waving frantically to him. "Matthew! Matthew! I found something!"

"Yes?" Matthew asks impatiently, turning and seeing her jumping around, waving.

"Come here so you can see it!" Anna says. Matthew, shrugging, follows what she says and begins walking. While he walked, he wondered to himself what in the world could be so important. Anna, seeing that he was coming, stopped and simply smiled proudly next to the opened door. Once Matthew had finally reached her, he turns and looks into the doorway. Immediately, his disposition changes, and a look of astonishment washes over his face.

"…I can't believe it…" He says, basically exhaling the words in amazement…


	31. This Part's Lasting A While, Ne?

(Eheh… Sorry for the silent treatment in the last chapter. I just wanted to get it done quickly once I got over my Lazy Writer's Block. Also, my excuse for this one being a bit late is that I had a five-day trip and a tedious set of homework and chatting to wade through. Well, for lack for anything else to blame… Here's the next chapter!)

"Okay, okay, so… Since my power is within me, and is now a part of me, that makes my body greater than a mortal's."

"**Yes**."

"But since your power comes from a source outside of your body, which can give you power at will, your body stays the same."

"**Yes**…"

"Meaning that your body is still technically mortal."

"**Yes…**"

"And that it's easier to heal because of that."

"**Yes…**"

"Yet it says at equal strength to my body because Daachan is constantly feeding you with power."

"**_Yes…_**"

"…Well, if you're being supplied with power constantly, wouldn't you count as being greater than a mortal?"

"**NO!**"

"…Okay, then I'm confused. You'll have to run that by me again."

"**I'M NOT RUNNING IT BY YOU AGAIN!**" Hugh shouts in frustration, pulling at his hair angrily. Five minutes had already passed since Miro had stopped the fight suddenly and asked Hugh to re-explain the whole theory behind the different forms of power again. Hugh's temples were, if possible, now more swollen with anger than they had been at the start of the fight, and even the glow of Daachan seemed to have an air of frustration to it. Miro sighs and lowers his hands from their thinking position, looking a bit downcast.

"Well, okay, but if you don't tell me, how am I supposed to learn anything?" He asks.

"…**What?**" Hugh says, spitting out the word.

"Well, you're an older peer, you're supposed to be more wizened in the ways of the world and experienced in things like making good choices and keeping one's chin up." Miro explains, sounding quite serious of the topic. "If you don't teach me, I may never learn."

"…Okay, when did this turn into an afterschool special?" Kate asks, her eyes narrowed.

"I think he's trying to throw Hugh off of his game." Kai suggests, scratching his head. "Making him use his brain and feel guilty all at once."

"It might imbalance him." Mary adds, nodding in agreement.

"Well, what happened to just fighting?" Kate asks.

"Miro also just wants to annoy Hugh." Nami says. "It's a guy thing."

"You would know?" Gray asks.

"I'm a people-watcher. I've picked up some guy things." Nami explains.

"No kidding…" Kai begins.

Skipping the part where Kai is brutally assaulted for now, Hugh and Miro finally seem content with the knowledge they've shared. Or at least Miro. You see, Hugh was now so angry that Daachan was burning away the grass surrounding him, and Miro was content with that.

"**I'm going to crush you so much they won't know which end of you to put into the coffin first…**"Hugh hisses, one of his eyebrows working up a feirce twitch.

"Right, but what style should we try this time?" Miro asks, quite casually.

Hugh says nothing for a moment, but then seems to calm down slightly and consider it.

"**Well…**" He starts, his head tilting slightly… or at least seeming to tilt, although it may had just been the effect given by a major, involuntary eyebrow twitch. "**…what do you have in mind?**"

"Oh, I don't know…" Miro says, rubbing his chin in thought. "…How about music? I know I could beat you up to Switch."

"**I could beat you up to Barbie Girl, dammit…**"Hugh growls.

"Hmm… Well, what about something between those?" Miro suggests. "Like… Holiday? That's good fighting music."

"**That's driving music, not fighting.**" Hugh says.

"It's fighting music…" Miro says defensively, his eyes narrowing.

"**It's driving…**"

"Fighting…"

"**Driving.**"

"Fighting!"

"**Driving!**"

"FIGHTING!"

"**You wouldn't know fighting music if you watched WWE!**"

"Wrestling's fake."

"**IS NOT!**"

With that, the two opponents charge at one another, trading blows in a frenzied tangle for a time. It took a moment for the observing group to even realize what the opponents were doing in the mess. Once they could catch on, the fight became more enjoyable. Hugh and Miro both match each other in attacks, blocks and counters for a time, until Daachan decided to step in a bit. The aura that surrounded Hugh previously strengthens, all in one large burst which knocks Miro back. Miro stops himself in mid-air (which startled him quite a bit, since he had no clue that nature abilities allowed him to hover (It turned out to be wind power but he really didn't give a crap at that point (although he still found it cool (and fun (and surprisingly refreshing, what with the breeze and all))))) and readies a long sword of ice before moving forward again. Daachan strengthens the aura once more, this time maintaining it to form a shield of heat. Miro stops once he notices it, and Hugh takes the opportunity to hold his hands out and launch a stream of fire at him. Miro quickly summons up a large amount of wind to keep the fire at bay and force it to spread away from him. Finally, he allows his body to glow completely blue and pushes his arms forward, sending ice into the wind as well. Both opponents close in on each other during this, and they are lost to sight in a massive spiral of fire, wind and ice.

"Wow, that's pretty…" Popuri comments, watching the whirlwind of power with interest.

"…Oh, that's what I should've brought!" Kate says, snapping her fingers. "A camera!"

"I wouldn't bother. There's no 1-Hour Photo in either town." Nami reminds her.

"Well, we recently had Saibara's shop double as one…" Mary notes. "And I think that Gray broght his. Didn't you?"

"Yes." Gray replies, nodding a bit. "I've already taken a couple of rolls worth of pictures."

"Really? I didn't see you." Jack says, blinking.

"I took them when others weren't looking. I wouldn't want to interrupt anyone." Gray explains. "And then there's… other reasons."

"Oh, show them your camera, dear." Mary requests, smiling. "It's so cute. It has these little bunny stickers and it's the shape of a Hello Kitty head-"

"That… would be one of the reasons… It's Dad's." Gray mutters. Everyone looks suspiciously at him. "…What? It is… Honestly, it is, it's not like I would buy it for myself… Stop looking at me! Hey, look, a fight! Everyone turn your attention to the fight! …Dammit."

At the exact same moment, both Miro and Hugh appeared from within the tornado, jumping out from the top of it and keeping themselves in the air for the moment. Hugh, however, was ill-prepared for this moment and Miro took full advantage by carving a wide line across Hugh's chest using the ice sword. Hugh was sent falling back and, as the whirlwind slowly calmed and dissipated, he fell the long height to the ground and landed with an unbraced thunk.

"Heh, score one for me." Miro says proudly, slowly beginning to float back down.

However, Hugh was far from finished. As Daachan began to do its usual patchwork on him, he starts to get back on his feet, stopping once he had himself on one knee.

"**Grr… Yeah, I know we're losing…**" Hugh says, seeming to be in communication with Daachan. "…**It's not my fault, you're not doing enough. You're just fixing me up so I can make an idiot out of myself over again… Well, how am I supposed to win this if you're not going all-out? …What do you mean 'so be it'…?**"

Suddenly, Hugh lets out a choked gasp, with Daachan's eyes beginning to glow quite stronger than usual. He raises himself to his feet, trembling slightly and looking at his hands. He then begins to groan as though he were in pain, and his face tenses and contorts itself. With only subtle things beginning to show at first, Hugh begins to change. He lets out a yell as he stares at his right hand, the fingernails of which start to morph themselves longer, much longer and sharper. Within several seconds, the had become long claws, much like Muffy's. The left hand, which he then turns his attention to, is given a slightly more radical change. A full-length, multi-bladed staff, like Celia's brooms, is somehow created or summoned from Hugh, made from some strong material which grafts itself to Hugh's hand. The only other change which Hugh suffers through takes place on his ears, which become slightly rounder and fuzzy. Once the changes had fully taken place, Daachan's eyes reduce themselves to a lesser glow and Hugh stops yelling, lowering his two changed hands, the weapon ends of which hit the ground, and simply breathes heavily for a moment.

"**Well… I guess… that's better…**"He admits, his voice sounding even slightly more warped by Daachan's influence than it was.

"Oh, boy…" Miro begins, touching down on the ground and staring for a moment.

"Hugh…" Lumina says in concern, her and most everyone else's faces with a reasonable expression of shock.

"**For this… I think it's time for a name change…**" Hugh says, smirking and raising his arms up, standing straight. "**I… am Hughchan!**"

"Sure, okay." Miro says.

"Yeah." Cliff says.

"Sounds reasonable." Gray adds, him and the group, which he was glad to discover were no longer staring at him, nodding and grunting in general agreement.

"Cute ears, too. It suits the name." Kate admits, keeping herself from chuckling as best as she could.

"**Get ready, Miro…**" Hughchan says, putting his new weapons into a fighting pose.

* * *

"It's a…" Matthew begins.

* * *

"Waaaait a minute." Miro says, holding one hand out to Hughchan. "Is that it?" 

"**What?**" Hughchan questions, tilting his head to one side.

"'Get ready'? That's your big intro to the final round?" Miro says incredulously.

"…**What's wrong with that?**" Hughchan asks.

"It's way too plain. If one of us is dying, I want the entry quote to be something big and cool, that other people would copy and use as a plug." Miro explains.

"…**Okay…**" Hughchan begins, pausing for a moment. "…Anything come to mind?"

"…Nope." Miro admits. "I thought you'd have something."

"**Hrrm…**" Hughchan says, getting out of his pose and scratching his chin with the side of one of his claws.

"…I can't believe this…" Ricca says, sighing. "Those two must be the biggest stooges this side of the…"

She then remembers something and looks back to Kai and the two Jacks.

"…Never mind." She says, looking back.

"You have to build up to it!" Kate yells suddenly, directing her shout to Miro and Hughchan. She was getting bored of just watching them think. "No good quote can just come out, you have to make it the clever end to a dramatic conversation!"

"…Hm, she's right." Miro says, looking back to her. "Thanks, Kate!"

Staring defiantly at Hughchan, Miro keeps his arms lowered idly, the sword's end resting on the ground.

"So, you're finally showing all of your stuff." He says. "Good. I was hoping you'd give it your all for the big finish."

"**Heh… You have no clue.**" Hughchan begins, chuckling quietly. "**This… this new power, it's more than enough to finally crush you into skinny, pale little splinters…**"

"Ah, but you're getting cocky." Miro says, smirking. "You think there's no way you can lose, but I'd say the odds are dead even, since I'm thinking the exact same thing right now…"

"**You've got nothing behind it.**" Hughchan spits. "**My victory's gonna be the true one. You know why? I'm perfect! The perfect vessel for Daachan's power! You can't hold a candle to my physique!**"

"And you couldn't hold a shaving of glow-in-the-dark rubber to my mind!" Miro replies. "I can, and will, defeat you since my wit outdoes your simple brawn."

"**Heh… But my mind has been set for this much longer than yours…**" Hughchan begins, holding his claws and his bladed staff out in another fighting stance. "**I've been waiting for this moment ever since the day Lumina looked at your toddler face and squeed out more than I had ever dreamt I could manage. Ever since, it has been written in our fates to face one another, and now…**"

During Hughchan's dramatic pause, Miro slowly and silently raised his weapon to a ready stance as well. Drips of water fell from its blade now, as the sun was finally beginning to affect it, but Miro could strengthen it or create another with the right opportunity.

"…**it's destiny time.**"

"Hey, that worked."

"**Yeah. Thanks, Kate.**"

"No prob."

* * *

"A… a Gundam…" Matthew wheezes out, staring up at that very thing standing near the middle of the large, warehouse-like room. The model of Gundam it was didn't necessarily matter to Matthew at that moment, as the fact that it was a large, shiny, powerful, two-legged metal thing was enough to keep him captivated enough.

"Anna…" He says, still staring up at the well-polished machine.

"Yes?" Anna replies.

"I love you." He states.

"Okay." Anna says, smiling and also looking up at the machine, which she found to be quite pretty, if little else. Matthew, on the other hand, was quick to act on his much more excited opinion of it.

With all of the haste expected of a young man with his fascination of certain otaku-esque subjects, Matthew scurries toward and up the large machine without need of any ladders or platforms whatsoever. He unlocks the cockpit by some complex means that he must have picked up from somewhere or another, and slips into the seat of the machine as it slowly opens, the hydraulic tubes and pipes hissing as it does so. He observes the controls and begins fiddling with them in some random sequence. Nothing happens, but he continues to play with the controls anyway.

"Umm, Matthew?" Anna calls up, her voice echoing in the large room. "I think it might be broken."

"What? It couldn't just be broken…" Matthew says, mostly to himself for reassurance. Looking the controls up and down, he finds a switch labeled in Japanese. He studies it for a moment, and eventually finds the english subtitle 'Start, you twit' in small characters beneath the label. Smiling, he flips the switch and waits.

"…Matthew?" Anna calls up after a moment of silence.

"Yes…?" Matthew calls back down.

"Are you absolutely sure it's not broken…?"

"Of course! They wouldn't just… I mean, it couldn't be, how could it… Th-that wouldn't be fair…"

"…Matthew?"

"Err… Wait. Just a minute…"

"Okay."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Matthew?"

"OKAY, FINE, IT'S BROKEN! ARE YOU HAPPY? ARE YOU PLEASED?" Matthew shouts, uselessly slamming his fists on the control panel. Slowly, he gets up from the seat, steps to the edge of the cockpit, and begins to climb down.

"Matthew?" Anna calls again. "You should see something."

"What?" Matthew asks, looking down just as he had reached the leg of the machine. Anna points to her left, at the other end of the room. Matthew looks in that direction and, eyes bulging, accidentally loses his grip and falls. Thankfully, with his somehow-acquired knowledge of physics, he knew that the best, least painful way to fall would be landing directly on his back, and on the softest area below him. Unfortunately, this area belonged to Anna. By what he later explains to be no fault of his own, he lands on her and both of them spend several moments recollecting themselves on the uncarpeted floor.

"Owww…" Anna whines, slowly aiding Matthew off with a push and groaning. "That hurt…"

"Ugh… I'm sure it could've been worse…" Matthew says, crawling onto his knees. "I mean, at least I didn't land on solid ground…"

"Well, why did you have to land on me?" Anna says, muttering a bit and getting on her feet, her arms crossed and hands holding her shoulders.

"It wasn't the worst angle to land on." Matthew states, also getting to his feet. "Imagine if I landed on your head. It was lucky you were looking up so high."

"It still hurt a lot…" Anna mumbles.

Matthew suddenly remembers something. Looking to what he was looking at before, which he then noticed had a large sign on the nearby wall reading 'Original Movie Novelties', sat a leashed, sleeping Nazgul.

"A… Nazgul…" Matthew mutters to himself.

"A what?" Anna asks, looking at him in confusion.

"The large, cool, black dragons of the movie and book series The Lor… Wait…" Matthew begins, sighing and shaking his head. "What has this world come to that we can't even get away from shameless advertisements and ad products in an abandoned mall situated absolutely nowhere?"

"I don't know… Want a Mentos?"

"Absolutely."

Skipping ahead of that, we find Matthew and Anna standing about 20 feet away from the head of the sleeping beast. Matthew scans the creature up and down, finding that it was most definitely not broken.

"This is perfect…" Matthew says, mostly to himself as he holds a hand to his chin. "This Nazgul has a saddle attached to it as well… I should be able to scan everything in the surrounding area with this. Hopefully we can find Miro and the others this way- ANNA!"

Matthew had noticed suddenly that Anna had moved directly in front of the creature, and had a single finger held out to it. She froze in place as Matthew yelled, her finger about six inches away from it.

"Do NOT… poke… the dragon…" Matthew says clearly, his entire body going tense. Anna tilts her head.

"But if we don't wake it up, how is it going to fly?" Anna asks. "It's not very useful asleep."

"…Okay… okay…" Matthew says, stepping forward a bit as he spoke. "Wake it up, but be gentle…"

"Oh, I'm gentle." Anna reassures him, waving it off. Slowly, she inches her finger toward the beast, and makes the mistake of poking it between the eyelids, a squelching sound audible from the action. The two of them freeze, for a moment, but then Anna suddenly remembers to remove her finger, which she does quickly. Looking at the finger, she cringes and begins to wipe it off with her shirt.

"Eugh… dragon spoog…" She mumbles. Turning to Matthew, she smiles. "Well, at least that didn't wake it up, huh?"

"…"

"…What?"

"…Meep." Matthew squeaks in a much higher pitch than his tone would suggest he could accomplish. He had noticed that, whilst Anna was looking away, the Nazgul's eyelid had fluttered… open… and was now staring, bloodshot, at Anna. She turns around, notices this, and gives it a weak smile, a sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head.

"Hiiii…" She says.

Slowly, the beast raises its head, extending its long neck up and getting itself up on its huge, dark-scaled haunches. It looks at Matthew and Anna, exhaling a slow hiss. Matthew looks at it for a moment, and goes against his first instinctive urge to void himself and run for the farthest visible landmark. Instead, he walks forward as steadily as he could and clears his throat.

"Say… Would you like to stretch your wings a bit?" He asks, swallowing once. The Nazgul stares at him silently.

"Umm… I guess you can't with that leash on you, huh?" Matthew continues, pointing to the collar around the base of the creature's neck. It turns and stares at what he was pointing at, and then looks back at him.

"Yeah, that…" He says, nodding. "If you'd let me look at it…"

Without delay, it lowers its long neck to Matthew, seeming to understand his idea. Matthew swallows again and, after a rather uncomfortable process, manages to clamber up and onto its back. Examining the collar, he notices a weak, strained and stretched-out area in the leather. He attempts to pull it apart, but it was quite a bit too strong still. Also, his work is interrupted as the creature turns its serpentine head around completely and bites into the chain of the leash, near the area where Matthew sat. With a powerful jerk, the chain snaps, and the creature spits it out.

"…Well, that was redundant of me." Matthew says, shrugging. "Though it makes me wonder why you didn't do that in the first place…"

The creature simply looks forward, though Anna could notice what almost looked like a smirk on its serpentine face. Matthew looks down at Anna.

"Well… I'll be right back." He says. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"…Heheh… right…" Anna says, nodding and stepping out of the way. She looks around and notices a large, open entrance at the end of the room, which proved that this area was indeed a warehouse.

With a sudden, swift motion, the creature spreads its wings and, Matthew noticing what was about to happen and gripping the leather handles on the saddle as tightly as his sweaty hands could accomplish, took itself to the air with a single, powerful motion. It then continues to pump its wings, accelerating forward at a very unnecessary pace in Matthew's opinion. Within seconds, it had cleared the distance across the warehouse to the opening and passes through it, taking off to the sky and becoming lost to sight by Anna, who sighs and looks around for something interesting to stare at.

* * *

In a rather climatic-looking exchange of attacks, Miro and Hughchan continually trade blows with one another. Miro had a slight problem, however, since the number of pointy things he was armed with was dwarfed by Hugh's quantity. He manages to get all of Hugh's pieces of weaponry pushing against one side of his sword and he pushes them back, forcing the two to float a distance from one another. They pause for a moment, looking at one another. 

"Ready to quit?" Miro asks, panting slightly.

"**Hah… never…**" Hughchan mutters, holding out all of his weaponry in front of him. "**Until this is over, I'm not gonna give up one inch for you…**"

"Well, you just did, which is why we have enough room to chat…" Miro reminds him. "But figuratively speaking, yeah, I thought you'd say that."

"**Good.**" Hughchan comments. Focusing, he pulls his arms back. "**Now DIE!**"

He suddenly takes a huge, rushing lunge at Miro, pushing his arms forward and shooting himself in the same direction with his pointed limb-attachments ready to skewer Miro in several, non-specific places. However, Miro holds one hand out to pause him, and he stops in mid-air.

"…**What?**" Hughchan asks, a bit confused.

"Check out behind you." Miro says, pointing over one of Hughchan's shoulders.

"**Oh, right, and then you stab me.**" Hughchan scoffs. "**I'm not that stupid.**"

"Whatever you say…" Miro remarks, shrugging.

"**Now, time to…**" Hughchan begins. However, he cuts himself off as he hears rapid wing-beats approaching from behind him. He pulls a quick 180 and looks around just in time to see a pair of open jaws flying right into him.

"**Oh, hell…**"


	32. The Adventure: Part LAST

(HI. This Chapter shall conclude the long, long struggle between Miro and Hugh(chan), but that is all I shall say at this moment. By the way, with the addition of this chapter, the word count for this story has finally reached the 100,000 mark! This makes it the second HM story in this site to do so! And, in lieu of this, I would like to give out a big THANK YOU to people who stuck through the whole thing, and to any new readers, and to anyone who read only one or two chapters, and to people who accidentally clicked the wrong link one day, opened the page to this story, and quickly pressed 'back' without a second thought, and to people who read a little bit of this on a dare for 10-20 bucks, and to people who read the title of this story on a list, said 'pssh, that sounds stupid', and continued merrily along thir way! But I'd especially like to thank YOU! Yes, you. The one I'm pointing at. No, no more salutations are needed. No gold or gems or marriage proposals or contracts to your life/soul, just read this Chapter and promise to enjoy it!)

A smile painted on his face, Matthew grips onto the handles of his saddle and watches as the Nazgul clamps its mouth shut, Hugh lost within its jowls. Smiling, he pats the creature's back.

"I'm pretty stupid, you say; I shouldn't kid myself thinking I can beat you, you say. Oh, but wait, look who's in the dragon!" He shouts triumphantly. Miro smirks, watching him fly around in triumph.

"Good job, Matt." He says. "Now how about having the thing swallow so we can end this?"

"Huh? It hasn't swallowed yet?" Matthew replies, looking at his creature in some concern. "What's the matter, boy? Too sinewy?"

The Nazgul kept its teeth clenched, almost seeming like it was having trouble with doing so. After a few moments, its mouth began to open against its will. Miro narrows his eyes. His hand glowing blue, he lengthens his icy sword by another foot. Also, he causes his left hand to glow brown and creates a short sword of smoothed rock for it.

"Huh? What're you doing that for?" Matthew asks, unable to see the creature's face from where he was.

"Just in case…" Miro replies.

Suddenly, the dragon's mouth is pushed fully open, with Hughchan seen doing so with his clawed hand. Growling, he pounces out of the creature, letting go and only narrowly avoiding the teeth on the way out. He makes a quick movement for Miro, who dodges and watches as Hughchan stops himself a few meters past him and turns slowly, brandishing his weaponry threateningly.

"**So, somebody thinks they can play with the big boys, huh?**" He states, looking at Matthew on his mount. "**Keep out of this, or you're next!**"

"Hey, I don't care." Matthew replies, circling around the two. "I can be in this fight if I want to, let's see you stop me!"

"**Hm… I'll just ignore you.**" Hughchan says, shrugging and turning to Miro. He rushes at him, clashing weapons and quickly forcing Miro into defensive fighting. After a few seconds of flying blades and swift movements that the two of them may have picked up from the various action shows and movies which are a staple in the teenage diet, Hughchan catches both of Miro's blades between his own and performs a forceful head-butt, sending Miro back to the ground. However, he recovers before he crashes and flips himself so his feet were facing down again, landing as such on one knee. Quickly, Hughchan launches himself downward with his weaponry in front of him, to which Miro only barely blocks by catching all of his blades between his own, the momentum causing him to slide backward slightly. However, Hughchan smirks, as he quickly spreads his arms apart, forcing Miro to do so too. Daachan's power quickly causes all of the blades of Hugh's broom-ish pole-weapon to form together into a single, large blade, which Hugh holds up in preparation to strike Miro down with. Just before he could do so, however, the large blade of the weapon is torn cleanly off of the rest of it by the jaws of Matthew's Nazgul, which had come down in a deep dive and flew off immediately after.

"**Gah…**" Hughchan growls, forgetting about Miro for a moment and watching the creature fly away. "**That thing's getting annoying…**"

Before Miro could do anything to stop him, Hughchan had leaped up and taken to the skies again. Matthew turned his head, noticing Hughchan coming at him, and wheeled the creature around quickly to meet him. However Hugh simply flew by him at a blazing speed. Matthew turned his head once more to follow his movements but, after a moment of searching behind himself, realized that he was out of his sight.

"Where did he go…?" He mutters to himself, still looking behind him. The sound of something influenced by evil clearing its throat in front of him caused Matthew to look forward again. Directly in front of him, standing on the dragon with unnatural ease, was Hughchan.

"**Well, well…**" He begins. "**Too bad your dragon's not flexible enough to get me now, hmm?**"

Matthew, after a moment of sweating, notices something and smirks.

"Says who?"

Hughchan gasps and quickly turns around, seeing the dragon turn its head around completely with its long neck and open its maw, lunging forward at him. He narrows his eyes… or at least he would have, if Daachan's weren't in front of them.

"**Not twice!**" He yells, holding the remaining stick-part of his left handed weapon out vertically, the creature's mouth forced to remain open because of it. Brandishing the claws of his right hand, he holds them out to the creature's face. Matthew watched helplessly, unable to stop him since it took both of his hands just to keep a grip on the creature. Quite subtly, Hugh pulls his claws toward himself by closing his palm, and then, with sudden ferocity… flicks the creature on the nose with the broad side of one claw.

The Nazgul shrieks, releasing its grip from Hugh's staff and thrusting its head forward. Yipping, it goes into a sudden spin, Matthew losing his grip on the handles and falling off of it while it was upside-down. Hugh is also thrown off, but stops himself easily in mid-air.

"Oh no…" Mary gasps, watching his child falling helplessly.

"Someone catch him!" Gray exclaims. Nobody does anything for a moment, and once Miro notices this from a distance, he sighs and gets up to his feet.

"Fine, I'll do it…" He mutters. Lowering his weapons to the ground for a moment, he holds out his hands, which begin to glow green. A large bush of brambles appears below him. Matthew looks down and notices this. He looks to Miro.

"NOT THAT!" He yells.

"What?" Miro asks, his voice carrying so that Matthew could hear due to his own power. "It'll catch you fine. What's wrong with it?"

"I'D PREFER NOT TO BE LANDING IN A BUSHEL OF POINTED OBJECTS!" Matthew replies.

"All right, fine…" Miro mutters. Holding out his hands again, he causes the bush to become the gaping maw of a huge Venus Flytrap.

"…MIRO!" Matthew yells again in frustration.

"…What?" Miro asks.

"Call me picky, but I DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN!" Matthew shouts.

"Oh, don't worry. I was just kidding." Miro reassures him. Once more, he holds out his hands and this time creates a large mushroom below Matthew.

Mary, among the rest of the group, studies it for a moment. She widens her eyes slightly and looks worriedly at Gray.

"I know that species of mushroom…" She says to him. Gray sighs.

"Look, I don't care if it's poison or regular: we're not taking it home." He states. "The house already looks like a fungus farm."

"No, no, that's not what I mean…" Mary replies, grabbing his sleeve in an attempt to make him listen. "That isn't a species of soft-shelled toadstool, it's-"

Mary is cut off by a painful-sounding crunch and a quick statement from Matthew.

"THAT… was not squishy…"

"…As you can see." Mary concludes. Gray nods, cringing a bit.

"Woah… Um, not my fault…" Miro says, shaking his head a bit. He begins to reach down for his weapons again, but pauses for a moment, as does everybody else, to look up at the Nazgul. It had regained itself and turned a direction in mid-air, proceeding to fly off into the distance.

"…I wonder where it's headed?" Cliff says, watching it.

"I dunno…" The Jacks and Kai chorus.

"I don't, either…" Nami says. She suddenly seems to remember something and thinks for a moment.

"Wait… I do know." She states. She smiles slightly and laughs dryly. "There's a town in that direction, I remember going there…"

"Really? What's the name?" Jack asks.

"I don't know…" Nami admits. She sighs, shaking her head a bit. "I just hope they can save their homeland…"

"…Matt, are you going to be okay?" Miro asks, tilting his head a bit as Matthew lifted himself to a sitting position on the mushroom.

"…Yes, yes…" Matthew replies, trying to shake the stars from his head. "I've had a number of bad landings recently…"

"You know, your dragon ran away." Miro informs him. Matthew grumbles, beginning to slide himself down the side of the mushroom and back to the ground.

"So, I'll just be another secondary in this again?"

"Yep," Miro says, nodding. "But hey, at least you did more than the rest of them."

At this, the nearby group muttered certain things to themselves, one of those being Kate mentioning that she helped the opponents create a cool catch-phrase. Matthew, pausing a moment to shake off his saddle-weary legs, proceeds to walk to and re-join the useless spectator group.

Just then, Hughchan lands a few meters directly in front of Miro, crouched but calmly raising himself to his feet.

"…**Ready?**" He asks quite patiently. Miro crouches down to pick up his weapons, stands back up, and nods.

"**Good…**" Hughchan says, chuckling a bit. Holding out his broken left-hand weapon, he calls for Daachan's power and causes it to mend itself, a new batch of blades forming onto it. "**Now, let's end this…**"

"This time," Miro adds.

"…**This time, yeah…**" Hughchan says, shrugging a bit.

In unison, the two opponents spring forward and crash into one another, weapons clanging and heated sparks flying in different directions. The intensity of this traded flurry between them caused the nearby grass to shudder, and the people to step even farther back than they were, eyes widened. Miro finally breaks off, taking a couple of steps back and quickly releasing a large gust of wind in Hugh's direction. Hugh stumbles back, but gains a footing and keeps himself where he was until the wind subsided. Once it had, Hugh paused for a moment to let Daachan build up its power. The group watching this looked to each other, wondering what was going on.

Suddenly, Kate gasps. She looks to Jack worriedly.

"Do you remember?" She asks him.

"Remember what?" He asks.

"How Daachan fought before…" Kate begins to explain. Turning to the battle slowly, she continues to talk. "As… As a teddy bear, Daachan was too weak to hurt anyone normally, so it always fought in those quick bursts…"

"So it's trying that with Hugh…" Nami says, worry present on even her own face. Quickly she and Kate yell. "Miro! Watch out!"

Hearing that, Miro also remembers how Daachan formerly fought against him, and raised his weapons to ready himself. Hughchan launched himself forward with blinding speed, its claws coming down to meet Miro's icy sword and shattering it to pieces. Then, with a vicious swing of his pole-arm weapon, he breaks the stone sword in half and sends either end of it flying from his reach. To block a third strike, Miro creates a sheet of ice to divide them, but it is easily destroyed with another swing of the pole-arm. Hugh charged through the broken pieces of it before they had even fallen and Miro, finally, faltered. Unsure of what to do, he holds his arms out to do something defensive, but his action was proven to be far too late.

All of what had happened during this burst occurred within three seconds.

The ice fell to the ground, clinking silently. There was a moment of dead silence as the people watching came to realize what had happened. Miro, eyes wide, looked down at himself, and then went completely limp. He was, however, held up by the very thing that struck him down. All five of Hughchan's claws had pierced into, and quite some way through Miro's stomach and lower chest. Smiling in contentment of his hard-earned triumph, Hugh slowly raised his claw up higher, Miro along with it, until it was directly above his head.

"**Ahh…**" Hughchan sighs, smiling and looking up at Miro's paling, shocked-looking face. "**Miro, Miro, Miro… Looks like I win, huh? Good run, pal, but you're still the Beta. If that.**"

Hughchan then lets his arm fall behind him, fingers flexed so that the claws would point down. At a grossly slow pace, Miro slides down the ends of the blades and falls off, landing on the ground, completely still.

"M… Miro…" Kate chokes out, breathing in sharp gasps as the realization of what had happened sank in. She shuts her eyes, attempting to steady herself. "Oh god, today sucks…"

"It… had to happen…" Lumina says, almost sounding like she was trying to convince herself. "I mean, at least somebody won, right? Today doesn't really suck…"

"First, first he's alive, then he's dead, then he's alive and then he's dead and then…" Kate stammers out, shaking her head quickly.

"Stay calm." Nami instructs her. "We'll have to take this in stride. Just be ready for what he does next…"

"What else does he have to do?" Matthew asks. "If the battle really is over, then-"

"Hugh's goal might be set," Nami begins, "but I don't think that Daachan's done just yet."

Hughchan slowly walks toward the group, smiling a bit. The blood on his claws give off a dark shine in the high sunlight.

"**Lumina,**" He says, holding his arms out as he walked. "**I won. Now you'll have no regrets to be with me.**"

"…Of course," Lumina says, sounding very unsure of herself. "No regrets…"

Slowly, Nami begins to step toward Popuri.

"**Think. We'll be together, and with no boundaries, no limits.**" Hughchan says. "**With this power we can do whatever we want.**"

"…Like what?" Lumina asks.

Kate, opening her eyes, looks around and notices what Nami was doing. Nami looks back and nods. Kate begins shuffling toward the blue-hatted Jack.

"**Like anything!**" Hughchan exclaims, "**Anything at all! We could fly! We could swim the ocean! We could burn garbage!**"

"Really?" Lumina says, her eyes widening in awe. "Could we even… point at random people and snicker for no reason?"

With a swift movement, Nami reaches into Popuri's hair for something. She pulls out a chicken feather, a harmonica, and a small rat before finding her needed item; a hairpin.

"**Yes!**" Hughchan says happily, stopping in front of Lumina. "**We could even… rule. Rule the world! Think about it; we could go to fancy restaurants every day, eat caviar and truffles, and spit melon pits at the butlers! It would be the easy life!**"

"Wow, yeah…" Lumina says, smiling a bit.

Quickly, Nami throws the hairpin across the crowd, to Kate. Kate catches it, but Hughchan notices the glitter of the hairpin as it traveled through the air (how he missed all of the other suspicious stuff that Nami and Kate did, nobody knows). Quickly, he dashes forward and stops in front of Kate, glaring.

"**What's going on in that little mind of yours?**" He hisses. "**You're not planning to pull something, are you?**"

Kate glares back for a moment, considering what to do. However, something that she suddenly notices removes the need for any decision. Calming down, she stares at him normally, red eyes showing their trademark evil gleam.

"Not this time, wittle Hugh."

A rope-thick vine lashes at Hughchan from behind and wraps around his neck. He attempts to grip it with his hands - but quickly finds it impossible to do so due to the attached weaponry they had - as it pulls him slightly back, away from Kate. After a moment, Hughchan turns around to see where the rope had come from, and finds, to his surprise, that its source was none other than the guy he was pretty much completely positive he had just offed.

"Say what you want about me, but don't you call Kate's brain little." Miro says, tugging at the vine he had caused to come from the ground and finding this to be the perfect excuse to try a heroic smile. "She's smarter than I am, so that would make my brain almost microscopic."

"**What… the hell are you doing alive?**" Hughchan asks angrily, flexing his neck to keep his airway open.

"Loopholes, Hugh. Loopholes." Miro explains, keeping his smile.

"**What?**" Hughchan replies.

"While I was on the ground dying, I got to thinking." Miro began. "I know it's tough for my body to heal itself, but I had to remember the perks of the abilities. It gives me power over nature, right? Right. Well, I had a thought cross my mind. You see, you had given me several major puncture wounds, broken three of my ribs and did something odd and painful with my spine when you kabobed me. After a few moments of thought, I decided to give life one last shot. So, I used bone, being a power of nature, to un-displace and mend everything you messed up."

"**But… what about your blood?**" Hughchan inquires, sounding more frustrated than interested.

"Well, I figured 'if bone is an element of nature, then so must be blood, right?'. And, I was right. I just re-filled myself and patched myself up with these."

Miro lets go of the vine with one hand and reaches down to his shirt, pulling it up to reveal some of the puncture wounds he had suffered. Each of them were covered by small lily pads, which were taking the role of makeshift plasters ('bandages' for those not into the semi-British semi-slang). Lowering it and smoothing it out, he smirks.

"…Gah. I should've thought of that…" William mutters to himself.

"You could've done that, too?" Ricca inquires, looking at him.

"Uh, yeah…" He admits. "Never crossed my mind, though. You know, I was all for getting the objective done, and not, umm, keeping myself from dying."

"**Rrr… What about your insides?**" Hughchan questions.

"I'm pretty sure you missed anything too important." Miro replies. "I might spit some blood for a while, but hey, I'll be fine."

"**Says you…**" Hughchan growls. Once again, Daachan's energy begins to build up within him, the heat causing the vine to burst into flame and wither away. Kate narrows her eyes behind him.

"I think not." She says. Suddenly, she grabs the hatted Jack by the neck and shoves the hairpin into his static-ey tuft. The electricity in the hair is quickly absorbed into the hairpin, somehow conducting into it completely and ignoring the boring, complex laws of electro-static physics for the moment. Quickly, she pulls the hairpin back out and throws it at Hughchan, the object landing and sticking to his shirt. In an instant, the electricity surged through the cotton fibers of his shirt and began shocking Hughchan a huge amount, to the point he was unable to physically move his body. Daachan itself loses its focus, its eyes dimming to a less intense red as it waited for the electricity to pass.

"This won't be enough…" Kate mutters. She then yells. "Miro! This is your chance!"

"Yes…" Miro says. An amazing idea suddenly crosses his mind, and the smile vanishes from his face as he dropped his end of the vine to the ground. Planting himself to the ground firmly, he clenches his hands into fists and holds them out to his sides.

"This… is the end, Hugh!" He shouts. "Prepare for my ultimate attack!"

The ground surrounding Miro began to quiver as he started to charge up a frightful amount of power. One other thing that seemed to be quivering was Miro's rucksack, which his father had taken the responsibility of lugging around for the past while. Cautiously, Jack pokes the backpack, and upon it not striking at him, he looks to the others surrounding him for instruction.

"Try opening it…" Kai says, the people surrounding nodding in agreement. Jack also nods, and looks back at the rucksack, holding a hand out to undo the zipper. With one, or rather several stumbling motions, the pack was open, the thing within it shooting out in an explosion of old food and unused underwear.

Hughchan made an attempt to move, but was numb from the electric attack. He regained just enough movement to turn around and see the source of the noise and the ball of old socks that bounced off of the back of his head. There, hovering above the group and the rucksack like a great beacon of triumph, were the ridiculously tight pants that Miro was forced to wear to get through the toll both at the forest several days ago.

"Stare into the chafing face of your doom!" Miro yells, his eyes, rather than some other part of his body, glowing a blinding white. "LEATHER CLENCH OF DEATH!"

With that, the pants come flying toward Hughchan, and before he do more than issue a scream, they had caught him and ridden up his person until they were properly on, the zipper zipping and the button buttoning on. Hughchan issues a yelp of agony, shaking his head violently and clawing at the pants to try to get them to release him. He found no success in this, and instead lifts his head to the sky, screaming with the dark influence of Daachan warping his voice into a demonic howl. A ferocious, ethereal wind surrounds him and the button eyes of Daachan pulsate and glow an incredibly fierce red, the ground around it and even low-hanging clouds seeming to reflect the crimson light.

"We have to do something to finish this!" Nami yells over the noise, her and the rest of the group bracing themselves against the wind.

"…The …The eyes!" Kate shouts. "Someone has to get the eyes off of Hugh!"

"I can't! It's taking all I have to keep him in place!" Miro informs, his own eyes still burning white.

"We need someone capable of getting them out quickly and effectively!" Mary states.

"We'll have to take a term literally, then!" William adds. "We need someone to… scratch his eyes out!"

"Well, don't look at me!" Ricca says. "I'm not that girly!"

"Me neither!" Kate shouts. "I don't think any of us are prissy enough for the job! Unless…"

Quickly, she looks to Lumina.

"Lumina!" She continues. "It's up to you! You're the only one that can do this!"

"Me…?" Lumina mutters, her voice reaching few people other than Kate. "But… Hugh promised me so much… If I do this, we'll never get to do all of those fun things…"

"You don't need them! And you don't need Daachan to do fun things!" Kate yells to her. "You'll still have all that you need!"

"But…" Lumina begins.

"If you do it, I'll give you a lighter to burn your own garbage with!"

"Ooh, fun." Lumina says, smiling. "Okay, I'll do it. Here goes…"

Slowly, Lumina walks toward the mid-chaos Hughchan, struggling to keep the wind from pushing her back. Her hair blows out in several directions, the band on top of her head only barely hanging on. Slowly, after some struggle, she came to be in front of Hughchan. He lowers his head, a desperate expression on his face.

"**Lu**…**mi**…**na**…" He stutters out.

"…I'm sorry, Hugh." Lumina says. Then, with a screech, she raises her hands and claws at Hughchan's face, each hand forcefully removing one of Daachan's eyes. They fall to the ground with two clinks, and slowly go dark once more.

Hughchan, or rather Hugh, gasps. He becomes still and silent. Finally, after a moment, he fell to the ground in front of him, Daachan's eyes lying beside. His nails retract and his pole-arm returns to being a normal hand, all power completely vanishing from him.

Miro's eyes return to their regular selves, and he lets out sigh before speaking.

"…Is it over?"

"Not just yet." His father states, walking out from the crowd and toward Hugh. Stopping next to Hugh, he kneels down and scoops up Daachan's two eyes. He walks back to the crowd, whistling. Miro follows loosely behind him. Once they were both there, Jack spreads his arms to motion for a clearing to be made in the middle of the group. They all comply, forming an empty circle. Carefully, Jack places the eyes in the middle of said circle, and then looks to his brother. This Jack, seeing the other Jack's plan, nods, pulls several hammers and axes from his rucksack, passes them to Jack, Miro, and a number of other volunteers, and they all enjoy a thorough and complete smashing, crushing, and shattering of the two beady eyes that had caused them so much grief.

* * *

In the deep cave beneath the corridors of the Mall, the ever-old, ever-hacking and sputtering Galen paces his usual three o'clock pacing around the dark path he beat into the thin sand after several years. However, breaking this usual routine, he stops for a moment. Something felt funny. He looks at his knobby old wrist for a moment, and then shuts his eyes, heaving a sigh. 

"Finally…" He grumbles. And then, just like that, Daachan's hold on him breaks. His body catches up to what it should be, instantly becoming a fine sand and settling to the floor below, allowing him to re-join Nina after far too long.

* * *

Once the dust cleared several minutes later, there was little left of Daachan but mashed shards that a field mouse wouldn't even bother to pick up. After wiping the sweat from their brows, the group returned the tools to their rightful Jack and enjoyed a good, full, collective sigh of relief. 

"Phew… Well, I guess we should head off." Cliff says.

"Yep," Jack says, his son making no sound of agreement or disagreement.

"...What about Hugh?" Lumina asks, glancing at him for a moment.

"Let him walk by himself. He deserves it." Kate states. After a moment of thought, Lumina nods, though she takes another glance at his motionless person before doing so.

"It's a long road. We'd best be going now." Nami says, beginning to walk away. Some of the others follow along as well. However, Miro, Jack, Kate, and Lumina straggle behind for a moment to look back at the patch of well-beaten grass housing the almost-unnoticeable remains of Daachan.

"…And STAY dead!" Jack and Miro chorus, glaring at it for a moment. Kate and Lumina nod, smiling, and they proceed to catch up with the rest of the group.

They all walk for a moment before hearing a sound from behind them. Turning, they see a strange object heading toward them. After a second moment, they notice it to be a large, pleasantly yellow object heading from the Mall's direction.

"What's that?" Kai asks.

"It looks like a…" Popuri begins.

However, the need to explain was removed, as the object came launching to them quite quickly. The group braced themselves, but it slows down once more, turning left, out of their way and coming to a lurching stop beside them. The object was, indefinitely, a school bus.

"What the…?" Elli begins.

The bus' door opened, revealing a cheerfully-smiling Anna at the wheel.

"Hey guys!" She says. "I found this in that big warehouse. Are you all okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine…" Ricca states. "But you came pretty close to crushing us there."

"Yeah, sorry…" Anna says, putting a hand behind her head. "I was checking for quarters under this seat and my foot slipped…"

"Well, whatever." Kate says, shrugging. "Let's hop in. But… someone else please drive."

* * *

Hand clenching the grass below him, slowly raising his head, eyes filled with shock and denial of what had just happened, Hugh looked out to see the group a distance away, the bus right next to them. With unwavering determination, he attempts to lift his chest from the ground, placing his arm underneath. 

"I… N-no…" He growls, clawing at the ground in an attempt to crawl his way forward. "I can't… lose… I am… the Alpha male… of Forget-Me-Not Valley!…"

At about that time, he notices heavy footsteps coming from behind him. Once they had stopped, Hugh noticed a large shadow over top of himself. His head turning slowly upward to it, he sees the gigantic, powerful figure of Cody staring down at him, arms crossed in discontent.

"Are ya, now?" He inquires, tapping his fingers on his huge biceps. Hugh's face pales and all determination drains from it, eyes widening and a small, whimpering sound coming from him.

"Oh… crap…"


	33. The End? HAH!

(You didn't think it was over, did you? Did I not say that there were several more Chapters to come after this Adventure deal was over? Don't you worry, there's plenty more to come. I'll hang on like a bad, puffy, itchy, oozing, infectious rash until every single thing I want to happen happens! And hey, throw me a review on the way out. I love nothing more than hearing the opinions of my readers! This Chapter, though, is another of those set-up-the-next-scene ones, but I did my best to keep it interesting. Hope you like it!)

"Okay, who's driving?" Kai asks, standing on the top step of the bus and looking at the crowd below.

"ME!" Several of the guys chorus, raising their hands. Gray also raises his hand, but doesn't shout.

"Okay… Now, how many of you have experience driving a motor-vehicle?" Kai pursues. The majority of the hands lower disappointedly. However, two hands that remained up were the Jacks'. Kai looks at them for a moment.

"…Oooh, right, city-folk." He says.

"Ex-city-folk," One Jack corrects him.

"But yeah." The other says, nodding.

"When did you guys drive?" Kai inquires.

"…Back. Back in the day, y'know." The Valley Jack says, smiling nervously. "You know how I said we were long-lost cousins?"

"Yeah…?" A good number of the people surrounding say with interest.

"Well…" The hatted Jack begins, also looking nervous. "One day when we were younger-"

"-eight or so-" the Valley Jack cuts in.

"-Yeah, eight or so," The other Jack says, nodding, "we got together and borrowed-"

"-stole-"

"-stole our uncle's car."

"Wasn't it a Camaro?"

"I think it was a Porsche, actually."

"Yeah, Uncle was a rich old knob."

"Anyway," The hat-endowed Jack says, returning to the point, "we were having the time of our lives, cutting corners, clipping curbs-"

"-running over pylons, trying to hit cats and squirrels-"

"-and other such safe activities, when we accidentally hit a rough patch on the ground…"

"Yeah, a bike race," The Valley Jack says. He then continues with the story himself. "They all managed to jump off of their bikes okay and dodge us, but the car got caught up in all of the metal of them and we skidded-"

"-just as we were rounding a corner on a cliff."

"Thankfully, we managed to swing the car around and dodge the cliff edge-"

"-but we swung a bit too hard. I went flying and landed on the roadside next to some bushes-"

"-but I hung on, and stopped the car. Then I got it going again, Cousin Jack hopped back on, and we were on our merry way."

"A few minutes later, we were going down a one-way-"

"-the wrong way-"

"-and a Semi came charging down at us-"

"-but dodged us-"

"-and crashed."

"Yeah."

"But then, we saw a squirrel on the highway. We had to dodge it, so I slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel. However, the brakes were shot because of all of the bikes we ran over, so we just sorta went into a really rough U-turn-"

"-and I was sent flying-"

"-again. And this time he fell into an open manhole-"

"-which thankfully means a sewer, not a…"

"We get it."

"Okay."

"Anyway, he fell through and… I never saw him again. What happened to you, anyway?"

"Well…" The overall-bearing, hat-bourne Jack begins "I fell into the sewer and was forced to swim with the current for several hours. Then I was spat out by a pipe into the ocean, and washed up on Mineral Beach. I got up, dried myself off, and sorta wandered through town for a while until I came to a farm. The old guy running the place gave me some things to do, I rode a cow, gave a sheep ponytails, and later in the day I met my darling future wife Ann."

"Aww…" Ann says, smiling a bit. "And I always did wonder why you smelled a bit off."

"And now you know. It wasn't the cabbage leaves I kept picking from the old guy's stock and eating." He replies, also smiling, He then looks to the other Jack. "…And then my parents found me and the rest is history. …Say, what happened to you?"

"Me?" The Valley Jack asks. "Well… I thought that if I could get down to that sewer quickly enough, I could save you. So I backed the car up a lot, and rushed toward the manhole. The car didn't fit and, umm… the wheel fell in and, umm… Let's just say that Takakura found me in the wreckage and took me back home."

"Ooh…" Kate says with interest. "Hey, did Tak still have those big eyebrows back then?"

"Jack shakes his head. "Worse. He had them grown out into afros…"

"Well, wait, if all of your parents found you, how come you never saw each other again?" Nami inquires.

"Oh, well, they thought it would be safer if we cut all ties with one another." Valley-Jack explains. "So, that's what they did."

"I see…" Kai says. Sighing, he shuts his eyes and makes a final decision. "Well, I'm driving."

"What!" Both Jacks chorus at once.

"Well, I've been driving boats a lot, and nobody's seen me crash." Kai says. "I'm sure this thing couldn't be much tougher."

"You don't know that!" The hatted Jack snaps. "How are you so sure that you're better than any of us at driving?"

"I'm Latino, I'm better than you at everything," Kai states, nodding to himself.

"Oh… well I guess you can- HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!" Hat-Jack yells. "You can't generalize in favor of yourself!"

"Yes I can." Kai replies simply.

"Well, why can't we?" the Valley Jack inquires.

"Because," Kai says.

The two Jacks look to one another for a moment and, neither of them able to overcome Kai's logic, they sigh, trudging onto the bus with shoulders sagged. Kai steps back to make room for them, and the rest of the group also climbs up onto the bus, minus Miro. Kate, noticing this, stops as she was halfway up the stairs and turns to look at him.

"Miro?" She says in some confusion. Miro calmly turns his head to the side, looking out in the distance.

"…I'm not going." he states.

"Ugh… Come on, Miro, you've already solved this dilemma." Kate says, sighing. "You decided to go, so we're going."

"You can," Miro mutters. "But why should I? There's a world out there. I haven't even begun to see it all. Mountains, deserts, islands and oceans…"

"Miro, you can pick between adventure and us; your friends, your family, me." Kate says authoritively.

"Easiest choice I've ever made." Miro says, looking at Kate with an expressionless face, quite similar to what William once always looked. Kate gasps slightly, and Miro continues. "You can go, I'm not coming."

"But… I thought… What about me?" Kate asks in disbelief.

"Ah… That's the trick of this power." Miro replies calmly. "I don't need you anymore. With this, my emotion, my feelings, they're all repressed. I can now live on without missing you a bit."

Kate's red eyes narrow. If that had hurt her feelings, those feelings must have been anger.

"You don't care? What about-" She begins, however, she is cut off by Miro.

"Oh, don't start with that typical my-life-was-barren-and-meaningless-and-everyone-avoided-me-like-I-was-diseased-and-I-felt-like-I-had-no-place-in-existence-until-you-came-to-me-and-picked-me-up-and-gave-me-purpose-so-I-could-live-on-together-with-you crap." He says, rolling his eyes. "I'm not big on cheesy poetry. Like I said, you're no longer impo-"

"You're bluffing…" William suddenly states from an open bus window.

"Yeah?" Miro replies calmly, looking up to him.

"I should know." William says, nodding. "I had to struggle a whole lot with myself to hurt Ricca back when I did. Sure, the emotions get held back, but the feelings are still there."

"…Really?" Ricca says from the seat beside him, not looking through the window. "So… you were going easy on me for my sake?"

"Well, yeah…" William admits, looking back to her for a moment. "But so were you. Just… not as much…" He cringes slightly at the memory of that battle's crippling end, and then turns back to Miro.

"So yeah, there's no way you're not fighting with yourself right now. And I bet you were just about to offer for Kate to come with you. 'Sides, you look even less taken-over by it than I was."

"You think I'm fighting with myself? Wanna bet?" Miro offers. He looks away again, and proceeds to walk away, stepping around the side of the bus and being lost to Kate's sight.

"Jeez…" Kai says, also having his head stuck out the window. "What a jack-"

"Watch it." the Valley Jack comments. "That was my nickname in Middle School."

"Mine too." The second Jack adds.

"…And mine." Kai recollects suddenly. "And my name isn't even Jack…"

"…That's it?" Kate says incredulously, stepping down from the bus and back to the ground, looking around the side Miro had walked. "…All of this time, and searching, and adventure, and he…"

"It does seem to be a downer of an ending, doesn't it?" A voice directly beside her states. Kate jumps slightly, and looks to the source of the voice. There stood the Harvest Goddess, looking to be in a state of deliberation.

"Are… you going to do something?" Kate asks, recovering from her shock slowly.

"Well, usually I'd jut leave it be, but…" The Goddess begins. "…he has those powers, and they belong to me. It states quite clearly in the contract that the user of the power must return aforementioned power to the first party – me – at the time of the third party – Daachan's – final removal. So, I need 'em back."

"…Are you going to get him?" Kate asks.

"No, you are." The Goddess states. She holds her hand out and a stone, roughly the size of a golf ball and with a random runic symbol engraved in teal-ish green present, appears in her hand. She hands it to Kate, who takes it carefully from her.

"…What is this?" Kate asks, looking at it strangely.

"Oh, it's a, I don't know, Stone of Absorption we'll call it." The Goddess replies, shrugging. "Just get it in Miro, and it'll take all of those powers out of him."

"…How do I… get it in him?" Kate inquires. "It looks a bit big to swallow…"

"I didn't say he had to swallow it. Don't think of it as a pill, it's more of a…" The Goddess begins, looking to be at a loss for words.

"…suppository…" Elli finishes for her, being one of the several people who were sticking their heads out from the right-side windows now.

"Oh yes, that's it." The Goddess says, nodding with a slight chuckle. Kate flinches, looking at the stone once more.

"So this is going… right up there…" She mutters.

"Right where the sun don't shine, dearie," The Goddess says, her smile widening at this.

"Yeah… Well, I guess that's exactly what he's earned." Kate says, taking a deep breath and sighing it out, shutting her eyes. She opens them once more and looks determinedly in the distance.

"…To the ends of the earth, Miro. You won't escape me…" She mutters with determination, "To the ends of the earth!"

With that, she runs off, going around the corner of the bus just as Miro did. A couple of seconds later, the people looking out the windows all turned their heads to the Goddess, who simply stood there patiently.

"…Aren't you going to vanish in a big sparkle of light again?" Anna asks, tilting her head to one side.

"Naah." The Goddess replies. "She won't be long."

Suddenly, the sounds of a struggle were heard on the other side of the bus. With clumsy haste, the entire group switched from one side of the bus to the other, wondering what was going on. Once they were there they saw Miro, hog-tied by blue ribbons, with Kate's ankle on his neck. Miro seemed somewhat more violated than even this would pertain.

"Huh… That was short-lived…" Matthew comments, watching along with the others.

"That was… so… intruding…" Miro mutters weakly. The people of the group noticed suddenly that Miro's hair was going back to pure red again, and his skin was becoming its regular tone.

"Had to be done, I'm afraid." Kate says with a shrug, digging her ankle down farther for good measure.

"You… know… I had a lovely plan laid out…" Miro states. "You would follow me, and then we'd be together, adventuring and stuff…"

"Oh, so you were bluffing?" Kate points out.

"Yeah…" Miro admits. "That's why I stayed hiding behind the bus, and that's why I didn't immediately run when you CAME AT ME WITH THAT ROCK!"

"Oh, speaking of which, let me get that for you."

"Huh-what?"

"Hold still."

"H-hey, wait, no! Hold on, be carefu- AKG… OOH, NYAGG, URRGH… OWW!"

"Was that so hard?"

"You pulled it out with the thicker end up…" Miro whines, his back-to-normal eyes watering, which was forgivable for someone who just went through what he did.

"Oh well." Kate says, pulling a single end of one ribbon and releasing Miro from his bonds. Miro remained on the ground for a moment, before lifting himself up and groaning, also making sure his pants were on properly.

"…I think you displaced my femur, I sure hope you're happy…" He mutters weakly.

"Oh, happy enough," Kate says with a smile, taking Miro by the arm and leading him around the bus. "I mean, you're back to normal, aren't you? No Super-Miro, no Dark-Dark Miro, no Sappy Miro…"

"No Mira…" Miro mutters, remembering the incident with the two weapons and the forced splitting-apartness of himself. "But… Sappy Miro can still come back if we…"

"We might just be able to stop that." Kate comments. "The Goddess is here, maybe she can do something."

"Yeah? Huh, maybe…" Miro says, thinking about the idea.

Once the two of them had walked around to the other side of the bus, the Goddess holds her hand out expectantly.

"Here it is." Kate says, nodding and giving the stone over to her. The Goddess smiles, and the rock vanishes, but she doesn't disappear just yet.

"I sense you want something." She states. "In fact, I do more than sense it, I heard you talking on the other side of the bus."

"Oh, good," Kate says. "So… do you think you can help us?"

"Oh, dear no," The Goddess replies, waving her hand at the prospect. "You want me to change him around? He wouldn't be the same guy!"

"…So, what can we do?" Miro inquires.

"Wait it out." The Goddess instructs. "Now that the two of you are at peace, it'll go away over time."

Matthew, who was among the group that had once again changed sides of the bus to see what was going on, nods at this idea.

"Yes… Yeah, in theory, now that there is no need for the two of you to suppress your emotions any longer, violent mood swings and personality changes may soon be a thing of the past."

"…Meh, I'll take it." Miro says, him and Kate letting go of each other and climbing up the stairs. Miro was walking a little funny, but otherwise seemed in fair condition.

"Well… I suppose that's my work for the day." The Goddess says, agreeing to her own thought. "I'll be seeing you all sooner or later. Toodle-oo!"

With that, again, she vanishes away in a flash of light. The group heaves a collective sigh and gets themselves comfortable in their seats. Kai pulls a lever near him and shuts the bus door. Just before he turns on the ignition, a deep voice stops him.

"Hold on!" The voice calls. The group, once again switching to the other side of the bus, peers out to see who it was. Some of them withdraw slightly in shock.

"Oh, hey Cody," Nami says, giving a small wave. Cody nods, holding in his hand the collar of an unconscious Hugh.

"I thought you might like to take him along." He suggests, holding Hugh out effortlessly to them.

"Well… Wow, you must've done a number on him." Miro says, suddenly noticing how unconscious Hugh was.

"Naah. He just fainted from shock or something, I never touched him." Cody says, shrugging absently. "Anyway, do you want him?"

"…Eh, sure, we'll take him." Jack says. "Thanks, Cody."

"No trouble." Cody replies, lifting Hugh higher and, in a swift motion, cramming him through an open window and onto an empty seat.

"…Are you coming along, too?" Nami asks.

"I don't think so." Cody says. "I'm here looking for more inspiration. I'll just walk back to the Valley."

"Okay." Miro says suddenly. "And hey, if you need more tools, I saw an excellent hobby shop in that Mall just out in the distance."

"Yeah?" Cody says. "Good, I need a new set of anvils… maybe a toothbrush, too."

With that, he begins to walk away, spotting the Mall quickly.

"Thanks again, Cody!" Lumina calls out before quickly getting up from her seat and over to Hugh's. Carefully, she sits him up, straightens his shirt, and begins fussing with his hair and other such unimportances.

"Get those leather pants off of him, too." Miro instructs. "He'll never walk again if they stay on him much longer, among other things…"

"Oh, yes, right…" Lumina says, nodding and beginning an attempt to get them off of him quickly.

"…I have a knife, if you need it." Nami offers, noticing her difficulty.

After a moment of making sure that no one else would appear out of seemingly nowhere, Kai starts the engine of the bus and shifts it to its drive gear.

"Which way?" He asks, looking behind him at the group.

"Here." Ricca says, getting up, walking, and handing Kai the trusty map that had brought them this far. "Bring us home, to Mineral Town, the sooner the better."

"Off-road it is!" Kai proclaims in excitement.

"…Not that you have much choice." Nami points out. "No roads."

"…Don't ruin it." Kai says flatly. Ricca walks back to her seat, rolling her eyes in the process, and sits down.

"…Oh, and Dad…" Miro says, tapping the shoulder of his father, who was one seat ahead of him. Jack turns around inquisitively.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"…Galen says 'PAH!'"


	34. Resolution, Content, and Happy

"Ninety-nine bottles of wine on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of wine," Hat-Jack sings, followed by several other adults.

"you take one down," Cliff adds, swaying his head absently.

"give it to Karen," Kai adds, whilst driving.

"ninety-eight bottles of wine on the wall." Gray mutters with little enthusiasm.

The singing continued on for a while, most of the teenagers looking very uncomfortable of this. The remaining Jack did not join in, since he was still busy wiping saliva from his face. And, to his disappointment, by the time he was done the guys had been shut up by skull-grazing knuckles courtesy of their wives and children (with the exception of Gray, who had stopped singing the stupid song long before).

"Hey, how long will we be driving for?" Kate asks to no one in particular.

"Ah, no longer than a day if I take this neat shortcut…" Kai replies, looking at the map and nodding to himself.

"Oh, right, the shortcut…" Matthew says in recollection. "…Say, how good is it, anyway?"

"It looks like a good road from what I see here…" Kai says. "It'll cut a couple of hours from the trip."

"…A couple of hours?" Miro says in disbelief. "That would've been days of walking!"

"Stupid train…" Matthew says. "If only you girls weren't gawking at Miro when he was unconscious, saying how he has 'an angel face when he's sleeping' and-"

Anna gives him a quick slap on the back of the head, displacing Matthew's hat. Grumbling, he straightens it out again and remains quiet.

"Still, the trip's going to be a day long…" Cliff comments. "Anyone have something to eat?"

"I snagged some TV dinners from the Mall, if you guys have anything to heat them in…" Ricca suggests, beginning to look through her travel bag.

"Yeah, those should work." William says, watching her pull out a couple of boxes worth of the dinners. "Could we eat them cold?"

"Not if we can help it…" Mary mutters, staring at a box with a concerned sort of disgust. "They don't look very appetizing… even less if we have to eat them cold."

"Well, I don't see any microwaves on this thing…" Kate comments, looking around even though she knew full-well that there were none. "…Is anyone good at starting fires?"

Everyone, minus Kai since he was driving, looks around at one another, shrugging when someone looked at them. Eventually, several eyes fell on Nami. Nami's own eyes narrow at the people.

"…Okay, question: Why does everyone seem to think I'm pyro?" She asks in some frustration.

"You have that gleam in your eyes." Her husband informs her. "Ice blue, tends to look a bit shifty."

"Well, I'm not." Nami states, referring both to being pyro and shifty. "I know campfires, but we'd need wood and more open air so we wouldn't die horribly of asphyxiation… Oh, and for future reference, if you do see me burning something, it's for normal reasons, like cooking or destroying evidence."

Several people look at her strangely after this statement. Nami smirks at their reaction, and waves her hand dismissively once to ensure them that she was kidding.

"Um… So…" Lumina begins, making sure to glance over at Hugh once or twice while she was talking, to ensure he wasn't about to fall and hit his head on something. "What can we use to heat the food, then?"

"Oh, I have something!" Anna says, quickly searching in her pack for the desired item. She smiles once she finds it and pulls her trusted flamethrower out. Staring at it for a moment, she realizes something.

"Ooh, I'll need something to light its wick." She says, looking out at the people expectantly.

"Ah, wait, I have my…" Matthew begins, reaching into a pocket for his lighter. Suddenly, he notices that it was gone, and looks around in a state of confusion.

"Ah. Here." Kate says, taking the lighter she promised to Lumina from her dress pocket. Carefully, she throws it to Anna, who catches it with both hands.

"Thanks, Kate." She says, smiling. Matthew looks at the lighter and suddenly notices something.

"…Hey, that's mine!"

"Yeah, I swiped it." Kate says simply, shrugging. "If you want it back, you'll have to talk to Lumina. And Hugh, once he wakes up.

After about half a second of consideration, Matthew sighs and lowers his head, crossing his arms and looking much like his father at that moment.

"…Never mind." He says finally. "It's not worth the… trouble."

"Life isn't as fair without your dragon, is it?" Miro says, with something between mock sympathy and stating a fact in his voice.

"Quite, much like you losing your power." Matthew replies, looking at Miro with a small smirk. "But I can take comfort knowing that I lost the dragon in a much less… invasive manner."

Miro mutters, flinching once. "You'll be mentioning that on every formal get-together, won't you?"

"Maybe not." Matthew says with a shrug. "Who knows, something even more worthy of mention might happen down the road."

"And… Got it!" Anna suddenly says, lighting the wick on the front of the flamethrower nozzle, shutting the cap on the lighter. She turns to Ricca expectantly.

"Hey, Ricca, can you move those dinners to the back of the bus?" She asks.

"…Okay, sure." Ricca says, nodding after making sure that nobody was sitting within five rows of the back seat. Picking up the dinners, she stands up and walks carefully back, making sure not to stumble from the several bumps that came from driving a standard-issue school bus offroad. Once she was at the back, she placed the dinners down on the seat and hurried up the row, back to her spot next to William. For some reason, she was a bit antsy about being between several cold TV dinners and Anna with a flamethrower for too long.

"…What about the smoke?" Nami inquires. "We'll choke if you use that thing…"

"Oh, don't worry, it's a special compound, burns clean." Anna says, smiling a bit.

"…Where does she learn this stuff?" Cliff inquires. However, before that question could be answered, Anna let loose a stream of fire from her weapon, directed to the small, frozen packages on the back of the bus. After a moment of firey carnage, she lets go of the trigger and allows the flames to die away. The leather on most of the seats before Anna were blackened, any loose stuffing had burned away, and the gum beneath the seats were giving out a hazy fume that made the whole bus smell pleasantly like a fruit stand. Sitting in the middle of this scene was a collection of TV dinners, some packages a tad burnt and all of them hissing as the creamed corn present within them bubbled forebodingly.

"…And people think that I'm… I mean, just look at what she did… Something's wrong with that girl…" Nami mumbles to herself, putting a hand on her forehead and sighing.

A small, smoldering bit of material from a sofa suddenly sparks into the air, arching across the sky for a moment. Muffy – whom, along with Celia, was dragged carelessly onto the bus and thrown onto separate seats – was lying quite unconsciously and had no possible ability to dodge this material, and it landed in among her non-gummed-up, curly locks. No one noticed for a moment, but Muffy, who had an almost-obsessive level of care for her hair, sensed her follicles in danger and quickly snapped awake. Blinking once, she took a sniff of the air around her, and other than the fruity gum smell that still lingered in the air, she immediately caught scent of burning hair. Gasping, she quickly gets up and begins patting off her locks in a panic.

"EEK! I'M ON FIRE! I'M ON FIRE!" She yells, startling everyone in the bus and causing Kai to swerve slightly.

"Muffy, calm down!" Nami orders, although she and several other people weren't completely sure if they would mind her hair gaining a nice, blackish hue.

"Jack, throw her some water!" Ann orders her husband. Jack, nodding, pulls out his Mysterile Watering Can, runs over to Muffy, spends a couple of seconds pulling it back for a big swing, and then excecuted said swing.

A moment later, Muffy, remaining still and expressionless for a moment, minus the occasional twitch, blinks. She was seeping wet from head to toe, and any eyeshadow she might have been wearing was gone, swept away from this world. On the bright side, there wasn't a lick of flame or a wisp of smoke left on her.

"…Where am I? Who are you?" She asks, seeming to be in a slight daze. She looks around, recognizing only a few people immediately. She looks down at herself for a moment, and then runs a hand through her hair, noticing gum on one side and some burned spots on the other. "My… My hair's ruined!"

"Muffy, what-" Nami begins, but cuts herself off after noticing the look Muffy was giving the Jack holding the watering can, who was still standing there and now smiling nervously.

"My, that's a nice watering can…" Muffy says, in a dark tone that was anything but complimenting. "Can I see it?"

"Umm… S-sure…" Jack says nervously, handing it over. "It's empty now, though, but…"

"Good…" Muffy says, and with a swift motion she viciously clubs him on the side of the head. The sound of two hollow objects colliding resonates throughout the bus, and Jack is sent sprawling to the ground, landing on the floor next to his wife. Muffy then throws the can aside, it landing on the empty seat next to Ann.

"…Whoa." William states.

"Is she going to be evil again?" Miro asks.

"I don't think so." Nami comments, seeming to ignore the twitching Jack on the ground. "…Muffy, are you done plotting revenge against my family?"

"Well… I guess…" Muffy says with a sigh. "Unless I can think of another smart plan…"

"Oh, good, then we're safe…" Kate says in relief. "We can finally stop worrying about being poked and stabbed to death."

"Not quite…" Nami mutters.

"But, umm…" Muffy begins. "…Where am I? What are we all doing here?"

"We'll tell you once Celia's awake." Nami states. "I don't want to bother telling the story twice."

"Okay." Muffy replies, nodding and looking to Celia on the bench-seat next to her. She shifts to the end of her seat and waves her hand in front of the comatose veggie farmer's face.

"Celia? Celia, dear, wake up." She says in a voice strangely reminiscent to a mother's. Celia stirs slightly, shutting her eyes tighter and then slowly opening them to see the cheap-looking tin roof of the bus and the even cheaper-looking dark rouge of Muffy's polished nails waving in front of her.

"Uugh…" Celia mumbles, shaking her head slightly. Muffy pulls her hand back, smiling.

"Celia, please get up. They're going to tell us what's happened." She says.

"What…? They…?" Celia mutters in confusion. Slowly, she gets up to a sitting position and sees all of the people on the bus.

"Well, okay… Let's hear this." She says while fixing her hair, deciding to skip being confused and get to the point.

"Good… Who's telling?" Nami inquires, looking around. Quickly noticing the reluctant expressions on the group's faces, she sighs and shakes her head. "…All right, I'll do it."

Several minutes passed as Nami told the tale of the parents' journey, from when Miro was found missing to the point they were at presently. Several people, over the story's duration, wondered what had happened at the teenagers' end of it, and Miro was chosen to tell their story by random selection ("Hey, whoever wants Miro to tell the story, raise your hand.").

Once Miro had also finished his end of the tale (with several… unnecessary items removed), he was met with hums and haws of acknowledgement and, after a moment, his father spoke up.

"Say… What happened with you and Celia?" Jack asks, looking at Muffy suspiciously. "Like, you got posessed and stuff, but…"

"Oh. Well…" Celia begins, thinking for a moment. "I remember it all clearly… but I had no control… Pretty much, Hugh found me in the room, and he had those two round eyes in his hands, and he asked me if he could help me. I muttered yes and he held out one of Daachan's eyes to me. I knew it was dangerous… but it healed me, and before I could get up and step back he put it on my forehead… Daachan made me stand up and follow Hugh, back out of the Bar and around to the other side…"

"Oh, and then I saw them." Muffy adds. "So I tried to sit up and get their attention, but then Hugh just walked up and put the eye on my forehead. But… I do remember looking up just before, seeing where Daachan's other eyes was and going 'C… Celia…?'"

"Hm, very dramatic." Nami says with a yawn. "And you remember taking Lumina and fighting William and all of that?"

"Yes…" Celia says, nodding a bit. "But we couldn't do anything about that because of Daachan… By the way, what happened to it?"

"Daachan?" Miro chimes. "He's done."

"-Dead." His father adds with finality.

"-Dead-dead." Miro adds, nodding.

"Seriously this time." Jack states.

"-Without doubt."

"-UN-living."

"-Not we-think-it's-dead dead,"

"-not we're-pretty-sure-it's-dead dead,"

"-but DEAD."

"Pushing daisies."

"The can has been kicked."

"It has bought the farm."

"Well, not our farm, but-"

"We get it…" Nami intrudes. "Yes, Daachan is no more. You two are safe to live the rest of your lives un-possessed."

"Oh, that's good…" Celia says with a sigh.

"Too bad there's no one to take our revenge on now, though…" Muffy adds sadly.

"Don't be too sure." William points out, thumbing toward the slowly-awakening Hugh. Lumina turns to check on him with this motion.

"Hugh…?" She says, looking at his eyes as they begin to flutter and stir. "…Are you okay?"

"Not for long." Nami says with her elbow rested on her seat, watching the events proceed with interest.

"Ughn…" Hugh mumbles, slipping slowly back into the realm of the conscious. His eyes slowly open and fix themselves on the I'm-rich-but-too-cheap-to-get-a-good-tailor plaid of Lumina's dress. "L… Lumina…?"

"Yes, I'm here…" Lumina says, lifting his chin up to let him see her. "It's all over now, you're-"

"-DEAD!" Comes the voice of both Muffy and Celia from behind her, both preparing to pounce and rend Hugh into beef giblets. Hugh snaps fully awake and screams in alarm, planting his back flat against the window of the seat and staring wide-eyed at the flailing arms and gnashing teeth present immediately in front of him. Thankfully, the two aggravated bachellorettes had been stopped in mid-pounce by various people nearby.

"So… Hugh… anything you want to say to these folks?" William inquires, currently holding Muffy back by the ankle and seeming to still have trouble with it even with the aid of several others.

"Errm… No… hard… feelings?" Hugh stammers out, grinning nervously.

"Feelings, no. Knuckles, I'm guessing so…" Nami comments, looking quite amused at this whole situation.

After a few moments of strain, Muffy and Celia simmer down slightly, until they finally slump back down on their seats in defeat. Any who hadn't already let go of them did at that time.

"Everybody calm now?" Gray asks, keeping an eye out for sudden movements.

"Y… yeah…" Hugh mutters, relaxing a bit and getting into a more comfortable sitting position.

"We're fine…" Celia states.

"We're used to getting our revenge a long time after the fact, anyway." Muffy adds, to the uneasiness of Hugh.

"Oh, and…" Miro begins, glancing over to the disfavored jock. "Hugh, what do you think we should do with you? Tie you to something sturdy? Maybe have you caged and towed behind the bus?"

"Wh… H-hey, man, I'm good…" Hugh says quickly, holding his hands out in innocence. "I don't need any of that, I've got what I want."

"Hm… So we're cool?" Miro asks.

"Yeah, we're good…" Hugh says. "I only wanted you dead so I could prove to Lumina that I'm worthy, right? Yeah."

"Oh, so NOW you listen to reason…" Miro mutters, more than a hint of frustration present.

"Worthy…?" Lumina inquires, tilting her head slightly at Hugh. "I never thought you weren't worthy… I just never noticed you."

"NEVER?" Several people on the bus shout, Kai going into a slight swerve once more.

"You mean that you never once thought that Hugh, the guy who kept doing stuff to try to impress you, and not to mention one of the only two guys even CLOSE to your age, didn't even cross your mind romantically?" Kate asks incredulously. "You never once saw him lifting your piano with one hand and balancing your cats with the other and thought 'hmm, maybe he's an okay choice too'?"

"Umm…" Lumina begins, pausing nervously for a moment.

"Well, come to think of it, you can't exactly blame her." Miro chimes in. "I mean, it's not like you ever thought that way about Hugh either, right Kate? …Kate?"

"I…" Kate begins, this time being the one to pause. "…Well… I'm… normal. I mean, my thoughts travel… places…"

"You DID?" Miro gasps, looking at her in exasperation. "When was this!"

"Back when you didn't have your appeal…" Kate states. Quickly, she corrects herself. "I mean, as a victim… This was back when I was all mean…I was only eleven… or so… I pushed Hugh into a puddle and for some reason I started feeling sorry for him… I mean, he was only this poor 148-pound fourteen-year-old, he could barely defend himself… So then I started thinking, and in bed that night I thought even more… and more… poor guy, with that incredible smile, and those strong arms, and that six-pack you could crack a walnut on, and that-"

"ENOUGH…" Miro hisses, teeth clenched dangerously close to the point of cracking. "I GET the point…"

"…Oh, right, rightrightright…" Kate says, returning to reality and sinking slightly in her chair, face seeming to redden quite more than usual.

"Miro, Kate, don't worry about it…" Matthew says in an attempt to relieve the awkwardness. "At that age, dreams like that are an absolutely natural and-"

Matthew was interrupted in his statement by the entire population of the bus, who seemed to find this the right moment to clear their throats loudly.

"Erm, yes… so…" Miro begins, trying to find something to change the subject. Noticing the closest thing to such a topic change, he makes an attempt to do so. "Heh… Hey, Kate, with your face that shade, it looks like a… freckled tomato."

Kate gives him an odd look, seeming to forget her discomfort for a moment. "…A freckled tomato?"

"I couldn't think of anything else." Miro states. "I mean, in most cases, you look something like a chocolate chip cookie, but with the red hue, I'm not sure… Maybe, a red shirt with buttons…?"

"Nah." Kate says, shaking her head a bit.

"A blood pudding with raisins?" William suggests.

"A scrape with several little scabs?" Cliff adds.

"A connect-the-dots game on red construction paper?" Nami throws in with a shrug.

"…No, I don't think so…" Kate says, once again shaking her head.

"…Oh! I know!" Muffy suddenly states, after looking at Kate for a moment. "You look like a strawberry!"

"Hey, she's right…" Miro says, some surprise in his voice. "'Cause strawberries have those dot… things. The seeds…"

"That's true… You know, I think that is it." Kate says, nodding to it.

With the mystery of what Kate's face looks like when she's blushing solved, things went along quite normally on the bus for the next few hours, with the minor exceptions of Hugh and Lumina having a few 'close talks' and Muffy and Celia attempting to slit his throat with a nail file during these. In time, Nami confiscated the files, but only after noticing how sharp and pointed Muffy was sculpting her nails to be. But other than that, things went honky-dory on the trip, the hours passing like the scenery, which included the odd tree and shocked animal that narrowly dodges Kai's driving.

Until…

(Sorry! Very sorry, but I had to leave it in suspense, for the Chapter was getting lengthy and my editor has to leave for Camp for six days. It must be done, but I promise it will be the last time in this story that I'll make such an obvious attempt at a narrative hook. I know fancy terms like that now, thanks to Grade 10 English… and that may sound stupid, but compared to Grade 10 Math, it's a lovely time. Plus there's neato books, like The Chrysalids… Damn, I wanted Sophie to have David in that book, it seemed so right. But no, no, instead she ends up liking the lanky old guy and… gets shot in the neck by a damn bow. Didn't exactly end the way I wanted it to. And then David ends up liking his… half-cousin. I mean, jeez, what is that abo- Oh, right, footnote. Well, shed some more light on me, in the form of reviews and such!)


	35. The, Err, Scenic Route

"Okay, go… Umm… Yeah, one word. Two syllables."

"Second syllable… You. You? No? Oh…"

"You… Me? It's 'me'? Okay, okay… Umm…"

"First syllable… rhymes with… Sing? Speak? No, oh, oh…"

"…Squish? Squeeze? Compress? Cram? It's cram? Oh, oh, good…"

"So… first syllable rhymes with cram, and it ends in 'me'. Umm… Lammy? Sammy? Tammy? No? Umm…"

"What does it relate to? Relates to… rear? End?"

"Arse! Arse and… Child? Kid? Son? Son! Arse-son… Arseon…"

"Arson! Relates to arson! Umm…"

"Nami!"

"Right!" Jack yells, smiling and pointing to the victorious Kai, who had turned around just a bit to glimpse at the proceedings of the Charades game. Everyone was fairly impressed at this, with some exceptions.

"…I'm… _not_… pyro…" Nami hisses, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. Jack walks back to his seat beside her.

"We all know that, I just needed something that they'd get." He explains. "No harm meant by it."

Nami sighs once, shutting her eyes. "Well, I do relate to plenty of other things, you know. Things that are true, like being impatient and enjoying the odd Judo match."

"Judo? Really?" Cliff says, blinking once.

"Oh, yeah, Nami's a beast in the ring." Jack informs them. "You can sometimes catch her with a good armlock, but if she gets you in her leg vice it's game over."

"…I didn't need to know that…" Miro says, sinking in his chair a fair amount.

"Oh, we're kidding." Nami says reassuringly. "Though, a Judo ring would be a nice addition to the property. Just to make sure certain people are up to snuff…"

Kate smirks. "Don't worry, round 3 will be even tougher than the last two."

"I sure hope so," Nami comments.

"…Anyway, Kai, you're up." Gray says, looking toward him.

"Huh? Oh, okay." Kai says, getting up from his seat at the bus and walking to the middle of the rows.

"…Umm…" Elli begins. "Don't we need someone in the driver's seat…?"

"Naah." Kai says. "It's a straightaway for hours. I just put it on cruise."

"Okay, we'll trust you on that." Ann says with a bit of hesitance.

"Hurry up, let's start." William requests.

"Right, okay…" Kai begins. Looking around for a moment, he pauses to think. "Hmm… Oh, I've got it! Here goes!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Muffy."

"I damn well hope so…"

After this next wave of discomfort in the bus, several more hours and Charade games passed, with Kai disqualified from ever playing another round for the rest of his life and being banished to his bus duties forever, or at least until they got to town. Night began to pass, and the tired village-goers (minus Kai, who had caffeine bars and plastic to chew on handy to keep him awake) began to grumble and yawn and stretch, some lazily watching the sunset as they waited for the exhaustion of this extremely full day to set in.

Miro, of course, was among the first to begin getting droopy-eyed. He sighed out a yawn before lowering his head slightly to drift off to slumberland. However, before he could even pack his bags for the trip, he notices a weight on his shoulder. Opening his eyes slightly and turning to look, he sees Kate resting her head on that very spot. Miro stares at her strangely.

"…What are you doing?" He mumbles, stifling a second yawn.

"Ricca's right, guys are squishy." Kate comments.

"Am not…" Miro grumbles.

"Don't worry, it's a…" Kate begins, cut off by a wide yawn. "…'s a good thing. Guys are made to be squishy at times in order to be used as nice little headrests for us…"

"Oh…" Miro mutters. "Well, if you're sure…"

With that, he shuts his eyes and goes into a deep, well-deserved rest.

At the same time, Ann and her respective Jack were also getting to rest, leaning their heads against one another in perfect, trained balance.

"I wonder…" Jack begins.

"Hm?" Ann replies sleepily, moving her eyes toward him.

"Do you think anything happened with Anna and Matthew that we haven't heard of…?"

"Well, Nami's son didn't mention anything major…" Ann states, "but they are sitting next to one another on the seats, which seems to be what all of us… couples, sort of, are doing… But this is Anna we're talking about."

"Yeah, it is Anna… our Anna… not some cheap retail Anna like the one Basil got himself caught up with-"

"You know what Basil thinks about judging the plainness of his choices." Ann reminds him sternly. "It's his life and he can live it as uninterestingly as he wants."

"Well, yeah…" Jack mumbles. "But back to Anna… We can trust her, yes, but maybe we can keep an eye on her, umm, monthly supplies. Make sure she's still using them…"

"Oh, stop it." Ann says. "This is Mineral Town, not Degrassi."

"What did I say about mentioning Degrassi?" Jack reminds her. "That's one of the reasons I moved away, to get away from cable…"

"Well, we're even now…" Ann says, yawning once. "Go to sleep…"

On yet another seat, Nami and the remaining Jack were also getting themselves comfy for a night's rest. Oddly, yet not unsurprisingly, Jack was the one resting his head on Nami's shoulder.

"I guess this is curtains…" Jack mumbles. "After this, we're all going home and living it out the way we always have…"

"Seems like a bit of a shame…" Nami says, looking up absently at the roof of the bus. "We found Miro, order has been restored, Daachan's dead-"

"Dead-dead," Jack adds.

"…Yes, dead-dead," Nami says, nodding a bit. "But… all things considered, I had a lot of fun…"

"You?" Jack says in some surprise. "Unheard-of. You don't have fun with anything."

"I do so…" Nami says, a small smile on her face for some reason. "Something refreshing like a long hike, some fighting, and a couple of near-death experiences… its fun."

"I suppose…" Jack says with a yawn, "it does take you back to the days… back to that first year where it was a battle and a half to get you to talk to me…"

"Yes, it's gotten better from there." Nami says. "You can talk to me now and I won't ignore you and walk away anymore, not to mention you won't have Celia and Muffy dogging you while you did so…"

"Yep, those were the times…" Jack mutters. "…Wait, you had fun doing that?"

"Oh come on…" Nami begins, "like I wouldn't have fun leading along the pasty newbie of the town to see just how dedicated he is."

"…Ooh, you're evil." Jack says, squinting his eyes in frustration. "Do you know how many sleepless nights I had wondering if you liked me or not?"

"About the same as I had smiling to myself asleep, knowing that I might not have wasted my young life after all," Nami replies. "I dawned the neck-cropped hair and blue vest because I thought it was over, but nope. You just had to be so damn persistent and tried to marry me anyway."

"Yup. Mr. One-Track Mind right here," Jack says with a grin. "The day I first saw you, I thought 'if that is a girl, she is absolutely going to be the one I marry-' K-kidding, kidding!"

Nami lowers the random rock she was about to make Jack the proud owner of and thinks for a moment.

"…I don't think it's over just yet." She says finally. Jack looks up at her, confused.

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"Maybe it is for us, but not for… them…" She says, turning her head to look at all of the teens, half of which were peacefully asleep. "Not quite…"

-

Evening became night, night became…more night, and more night finally became morning. The hours rode by methodically, as Kai was just exiting the shortcut when the majority of the people woke up. As soon as they saw the shortcut, their jaws fell on their laps in mass incredulousness. From that they saw, the path was lined with flowers and sakura trees, housing songbirds, rabbits and other such woodland creatures. Slowly, the people looking outside turned their heads, looking straight forward at the seat in front of them, and let out a collective sigh.

"We had to stay on the train just a biiit too long-" Matthew begins.

"Oh, hush…" Anna says, glaring at him for a moment.

More hours passed, one by one by one, until everyone on the bus was officially saddle-sore and then some. Most people lost track of the time after a while, preoccupied with cards or hard-to-play Marbles games or the odd 'TREE!'. In time, Kai was passing through a forested area, carefully swerving between plant and animal life until he found clearings.

"This is getting interesting…" Miro comments, after Kai hit a bump and completely scrambled yet another Marbles game. Looking up and out the windows, he nods in agreement to himself. "Just look at the trees. Everything here seems rather… normal."

"That's a good change…" Kate says. Most of the others nod at this.

"Where are we, Kai?" Cliff asks.

"I'm not… totally… sure…" Kai says, half a dozen coffee mugs scattered around him and a small bit of plastic still hanging from his mouth. "But soon, yeah, soon…"

"…Never mind him." Elli begins, sighing. "I think he'll need some Turbojolt if this trip is much longer… and some eyedrops… In fact, he'll need to go straight to the Doctor…"

"Clearing!" Kai yells. And, indeed, the trees made an abrupt end just a few meters later, allowing Kai the pleasure of finally gunning it down a path that appears shortly after, going down the way he was.

"…Hey, a lake…" Hugh points out, looking out toward it. It was small, with a tiny island in the middle of it.

"Watch out for the creek!" Kate yells, seeing one with only a small footbridge going across it. Thankfully, with skill or luck or perhaps just by accident, Kai swerves hard enough for the bus to balance on its right wheels and go across the small bridge.

"…O…kay… Anybody else recognize the lake and that bridge?" Gray says, swallowing once after the bus slammed back down on all of its wheels.

"…Yes…" the hatted Jack says, nodding meekly.

"…Do you realize, then, where this pathway will take us?" Gray questions further, as the bus began to do what felt like going up a rather steep hill.

Everyone from Mineral Town immediately widened their eyes to the size of… much-widened eyes.

"KAI! HIT THE BRAKE!" They all suddenly yell. Kai, in a panic, also realizes where this would take them and accidentally slams on the gas instead of the brake. Several people not in their seats are knocked back by the force.

"WRONG PEDAL!" basically everyone screams out. Kai nodded quickly and moved his foot, slamming on the brake as hard as he could. The bus goes into a skid, swerving once in a pattern that unfortunately followed the path precisely. After a moment of doing so, the people notice the sound of the tires screeching and crunching over rock as they reached the very pinnacle of Mother's Hill. A jolt was felt as the bus' front wheels passed over the hill's edge, and the sound of metal screeching could be heard after that as the bus skidded across the rock, slowly. And, at what was probably the last possible instance, the bus grinded to a stop, balancing over the edge of the hill.

"…Wh… Why does every day in my life have to suck…?" Miro mutters, gripping onto a seat for support while standing up.

"Don't… move…" Nami orders, everyone seeming to agree that this was the best idea.

The bus was swaying noticeably, balanced on the very edge of the hill. Several people gulped as it went backwards, and several sighed when it went forwards.

"Now…" Ricca says slowly, taking in a deep breath. "We need some weight on the other end… Anna, slowly walk up to the back, and when you're close enough, throw your backpack as far as it'll go."

Anna nods slowly, biting her lip as she slowly picked up her bag and walked up the aisle of the bus, using the seats to aid her. Once she was at a good range, she swayed her backpack back and forth in her hand, and threw it as far as she could. It landed near the back seat, and with all of the concealed weapons and heavy equipment in it, it quickly weighed the back end of the bus down and sent its wheels crashing safely on the ground.

"Thank goodness…" Miro says, sighing once. "Now, everybody, take the back exit out."

"That's an emergency exit…" Anna points out.

"Anna, even compared to the argument in the Mall over the emergency exit, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!" Matthew yells, sending his own cap askew on his face.

"…Well, yeah, I guess this time…" Anna says. Carefully, she walks to the back and opened up the exit door, stepping out first onto solid ground. She is followed by everyone else, ushered by Miro and Ricca, until only those two remained there. However, that fact slipped Anna's mind for the moment.

"Oops, can't forget this!" Anna says, reaching into the bus and taking her backpack from it. Ricca and Miro's eyes both widen.

"ANNA, WE'RE STILL IN HERE!" they both yell. However, it was too late. The bus slowly began to lean back yet again, and with Anna's back turned obliviously they were out of luck for a weight.

"Quick, get to the top!" Ricca yells. Miro, nodding, began to clamber up the way along with her. However, as the bus leaned farther and farther back, it became more difficult, until it was actually quite impossible and they had to climb up the seats to get anywhere. By the time they actually had made it and were sitting on the back of the furthest seats they could get to, they quickly notice that the bus… didn't stop leaning…

"We're not heavy enough…" Ricca says plainly.

"Oh, why couldn't our cows make anything but low-fat butter…?" Miro mutters to himself. "'The cholesterol will kill you', yeah, but not before the pointy rocks at the bottom of this cliff do!"

"And the exit's too far to reach…" Ricca continues. "This isn't good…"

"The irony is killing me, here…" Miro mumbles, leaning back against the wall and making himself comfy, "but not before the pointy ro-"

"Oh, shut up." Ricca snaps, sighing and also getting herself in a more comfortable position.

There was a moment's pause, cut off by the sound of rock grinding and the bus leaning back even further. They both cringe and wait for a moment.

"…We did make a good team," Ricca states.

"Yeah…" Miro replies. "We were fighting for leadership in the beginning, but we probably should've been working together…"

"Yes. But at least we didn't let the rivalry go too far." Ricca says, shrugging a bit. "We went for power, but it never really interrupted our big objective. And, we never let our group down."

"Oh yeah, of course. Without us, they'd have been toast." Miro says with a chuckle.

Suddenly the bus begins sliding, a cracking sound heard as though a rock had finally snapped under the weight of the vehicle. The two were thrown around a bit by this, Miro landing on his back on a seat a few rows lower, Ricca managing to grip onto a seat one lower than the one she was just sitting on and using it to land easily on the seat one lower. Looking down, she notices that there was a large root sticking out of the side of the hill keeping the bus from falling. At this point, the bus was almost completely vertical.

"…Are we dead yet?" Miro asks, looking up at her and slowly sitting up.

"No…" Ricca replies, sighing once in relief. "We'll be fine as long as that one root holds up-"

A loud crack from the root interrupts Ricca. Both she and Miro gasp.

"R… Ricca, I think there's something I should say…" Miro begins. "I, uhh… I love you!"

"…What?" Ricca says, staring at him.

"Well, not nearly as much as Kate, but these being our last moments alive I figured it might count for something…" Miro explains quickly, glancing down at the ever-cracking root once or twice.

"…It doesn't." Ricca says, shaking her head. "And there's no way we can die right now… Nope, too much has happened. It would be anti-climactic."

"No, no, it would be anti-resolution-ic." Miro corrects her.

Suddenly, the root beneath them completely snaps, the bus jolting as it began its way down. Quite suddenly, however, it stops.

"…Umm…" Miro begins, looking around. "…Why aren't we, umm, falling or… dead…?"

"I'm… not sure…" Ricca admits, looking around. Nothing they could see was holding the bus up now. Suddenly there's a quick upward jerk, and the bus is risen slightly. Apparently something was hanging onto it and making a good effort to pull it up.

"Er…" Miro says, another lifting motion felt in the bus. "…Any idea what this could be?"

"No… and I'm not really in the mood to care…" Ricca replies.

Slowly (much too slowly for Miro and Ricca), the unnamed force pulls the bus up bit by bit, and, in about a minute's time, tips the bus down to land on its back wheels again. At this point, Miro could walk to the back window and see what was doing this.

Looking out the door, and finally looking down, he saw, gripping the tailpipe of the bus and pulling it back to the ground, "…Hugh?"

"Yup," Hugh says, straining to haul the bus back to the ground. "What, was I gonna just leave you two? No, no, like I said, I'm good."

"Oh yeah?" Miro says disbelievingly. He looks toward the other people standing by idly. "And how exactly is he doing this by himself?"

"The same reason he's doing it at all. Motivation," Kate replies. "Lumina happened to mention how very impressed she would be if Hugh could lift up the bus."

"Good thinking." Ricca says, walking from behind Miro, impatiently, she simply hops down from the elevated bus door and joins the others. Miro follows suit, landing easily enough and walking with Ricca for just a second to pass a small message.

"I retract my statement from earlier…" He says. Ricca nods.

"Of course. This never happened." She says simply.

"H-hey, wait up!" Hugh says, letting go of the tailpipe to follow them. This causes the bus to lean over yet again and, this time, fall over the cliff and land on the rocks below, resulting in an explosion which sent several shards of metal flying all over the place and small clouds of flame poking over the edge of the hill. The group turned quickly to see this occur.

"…Well, maybe it happened a little…"


	36. Karrie

(This chapter's a liiittle short, but I really like it and I hope you folks enjoy it, too. I've had this part planned for who-knows-how-long so yes, once again, I will ask for reviews. For some reason, I like getting and reading them. It's probably something unhealthy, but no matter! On with the show!)

Several minutes later, the group had finished hiking down the semi-winding path of Mother's Hill and were now winding the corner to take the other path towards town. Miro looks down another path, northwest, during this turn and notices a rather refreshing-looking hotspring. He, along with his father and a number of other people who noticed the springs, remind themselves to take a long dunk in them after the end of this. For once, even Miro and Jack were in the mood to clean up a bit.

After the corner was wound and the longing sight of the hot spring vanished from view, the group heads north toward a bridge, and after crossing this bridge…

"Welcome, everybody, to my home… my EMPIRE…" The hatted Jack says excitedly, looking around as his hard-kept farming property as they walked in it.

"It's so nice to be home…" Anna says, smiling and suddenly running off ahead of the group, eyes shut and arms outstretched as though to take in all of the air and sound of her old home again. Ann also smiles, observing the old property.

"It looks like everything was taken care of very well…" she comments. "We'll have to give the guys some credit for this…"

"The guys, you say?" Nami says questioningly. "Who do you have taking care of this place?"

"Hey, Jack's back!" a small, excited voice announces. Suddenly, from behind a patch of sweet potatoes, a red-clad little Sprite pops his head up and jumps over, running toward the group. He's followed by a rainbow of other Sprites, running up from the field, the barn, the house, and the chicken coop.

"Jack's back!"

"Jack's back!"

"Jack's back!"

"And he brought Ann and Anna!"

"And he brought friends!"

"He has friends?"

The group stopped as the sprites approached, forming a line in front of their apparent boss, Jack. Each one smiled and hopped about excitedly.

"How did things go, Chef?" He asks, looking to the Sprite in red.

"Great! Super-awesome-great!" Chef states, still smiling. "All the cows are happy and the chickens are happy and the sheep are happy and the horse is happy and we bit all of the trespassers just like you asked!"

"Zack kept showing up every day for some reason, but we showed him every time!" a deep-blue Sprite says proudly.

"Umm… you got your orders mixed up a little, but that's okay…" Jack says, scratching the back of his hat.

"Did you all take care of Anna's favorite like we asked?" Ann inquires. However, her question was answered by a resounding shriek coming from the chicken coop inside.

"Anna!" Matthew says, widening his eyes. "Just a minute, I'll see what this is about…"

Matthew quickly ran off, disappearing behind the door of the coop.

"Yep!" Chef says proudly. The group looks at him strangely.

A moment later, the coop door opens and Anna walks out, Matthew following right after with some concern on his face. Cradled in Anna's hands was a… perfectly, if not overly healthy chicken.

"Chubby!" Anna cries, sniffing once. "…He's not chubby anymore!"

"Yeah, we put him on a special diet regimen!" Chef says proudly, the other Sprites nodding. "Plenty of exercise, and only 2/3 of the feed it usually gets!"

"…What happened to the other third?" Ann asks, keeping an eye on his crying daughter whom Matthew was attempting to calm down.

"We had Hoggy eat it…" a purple Sprite says. A yellow Sprite, presumably Hoggy, nods and accidentally belches out a few seeds.

"Anna, it's okay. He's still Chubby, just not in the physical term…" Matthew is overheard saying, keeping close to Anna but hesitant of doing much else.

"But now there's less of him to love!" Anna replies, sniffing again.

"But… but, he might live longer now! If we ratio it day-to-day it'll probably be the same amount to love by the end, if not more…" Matthew says in return, becoming quite unsure of what else to do.

"Are… are you sure…?" Anna says, looking at him once. "I'm not sure, it's not the same…"

"We could always… buy the Extra-Fattening Pellets from Won, if you'd like…" Matthew suggests. "I'm sure we could get him back out of shape in no time…"

"Yeah…?" Anna says, wiping a small tear from her eye and looking at him.

"Not a doubt." Matthew replies. Anna, smiling, gently lowers a beleaguered Chubby, puts her arms around Matthew, and-

"Heads up!" Miro says, he and the rest of the group turning away and putting a hand to the side of their face to screen their eye. For the next moment, they hear certain phrases that drove them to raise and furrow their eyebrows like nothing else, including "Ugh… it's too small, it's not fitting!" and "Hey, don't swallow! It only makes it harder!", finally ended with "Oh… wait, that's good… Yeah, I just have to squeeze and… There, done!".

The rest of the group, quite nervously, removes their hand and looks toward the two. Matthew was now porting a thin chain necklace with a silver egg-shaped medallion hanging from it.

"Thanks, Anna." Matthew says, looking at the necklace with interest.

"No problem." Anna replies. "It's the least I could do, I feel a lot better now…"

"Oh, so you put your arms around him to… put on the necklace…" Miro mutters.

"Well, yeah." Matthew replies, blinking once. "…What were you thinking?"

Ignoring this question completely, the group begins toward the north exit in unison, the Sprites clearing a path for them to keep from being crushed. After passing a rather full Shipping Bin and between the barn and house, they find themselves in a street. The large collective of people proceed down this narrow street until they get to the first division, where they were stopped by a smiling woman with brownish-blonde hair and light blonde bangs. This woman called to them some distance down the northern street, waving to get their attention and then running down said street. She stops in front of them and smiles. A half-full wine bottle was present in her hand, removing all need for further description.

"Oh, you found them!" She exclaims. "This is great! And look, others! Who are these folks, anyway?"

"Umm…" the hatted Jack begins. "Well, this here is my cousin, Jack…"

The other Jack then continues. "This is my wife, Nami."

Nami then proceeds. "This is our son, Miro."

Miro takes his cue. "This is Kate."

"That's Lumina."

"This is Hugh."

"The old lady in red's Muffy- OWW…"

"And this is Celia."

"Wow…" the woman says. "I bet you all have a story to share in the Inn tonight. Ooh, I can't wait! My name's Karen, by the way. I hope you all like it here!"

"…Is she, umm…" Lumina begins, eyeing the half-empty bottle.

"It's hard to tell sometimes…" William says quietly. "Just as long as she stays happy, we kinda leave her alone with it…"

"Oh, but I have a story to share right now!" Karen says excitedly, waving her arms and causing several people to recoil hesitantly. "Guess who's back today?"

"…The voices…?" Jack begins, cut off by a look from Nami.

"No, even better!" Karen replies, laughing a bit. "It's my-"

"Mom, where'd you go?" a feminine voice calls from where Karen had ran from. All eyes moved away from Karen to see where this distant voice had come from. Seeing her mother, a girl within the age of all of the other teens runs up, looking to her and then to the rest of the group. "Oh… who are all of these?"

"Well, they'll introduce themselves. They're good at doing it all in a row. But first, I'll introduce you!" Karen states. "Everyone, this is my daughter."

"…What's your name?" the Valley Jack inquires.

"Karrie." The girl replies with a smile. With that, a sudden realization sweeps over every teenage male in the immediate crowd. Karrie, having benefited from the feminine traits of both of her parents, was an absolutely ravishing thing to behold. She had a very symmetrical quality to her and had a face so angelic that several of the teen guys checked their pulse a moment after seeing her. She had long, flowing, golden-blonde hair which fell behind her shoulders and reached to her lower back. On the trip down to see the length of her hair, one would find a peach-shade, sleeveless shirt with a small heart right in the middle, flanked by a light, raspberry-red vest. If one were to continue downward for no particular reason one would find light blue short-pants tucked up slightly, and finally, a pair of powder-blue sandals. Judging by the blank stares given by the guys and the small trail of drool dripping from some of them, the trip was well worth it.

"…Oh, and welcome back, Matthew and William!" she says, walking to them and giving each a rather welcoming smile. The two nod dumbly, expressions unchanging. Karrie then notices the red hair of the bunch and walks toward him, stopping quite directly in front of said person. "And hey, who is this?"

"That is Miro, our son…" Nami states, ignoring the direction this was going.

"Oh… Hello, Miro." Karrie says with a smile. Miro nods, however his eyes seemed fixated on something quite visibly below Karrie's face. Apparently he had just had a new realization regarding Karrie's personage.

"NICE… LUNGS…" he points out, seeming to struggle with both the volume and the pitch of his voice.

Karrie simply smiles yet again, nodding slightly once. "Thanks. I get that a lot." she says.

"I… Indeed, very nice lungs." Matthew adds, quickly trying to regain a somewhat normal voice. "Not- Not overly large or very small, just… in the perfect… range…"

The girls weren't stupid. They weren't even vain, with some exceptions. Regardless, they weren't stupid. They could see the deer-in-headlights look that their beclaimed guys were giving this thing of unparalleled perfection, and were getting very… very… annoyed.

"Oh, and who is this fellow?" Karrie says, walking away from Miro and toward Hugh, stopping directly in front of him like she had previously and giving his abs an interested stroke with her finger. "My, aren't you the stud…"

"_He will be studded if he keeps this up…_" Lumina hisses to herself, looking genuinely more angry than her shy, innocent self usually suggested.

"What's your name?" Karrie inquires, tilting her head a bit to look up at Hugh's face.

"HOT-" Hugh begins out of pure instinct. However, he has his mouth clamped over by Matthew's hand, who seemed to be the only guy not completely in a state of entrancement.

"-out, yes, it is quite warm for an Autumn day…" he says, helping Hugh finish his sentence for him. "Now, tell the bod- the lady your name…"

Hugh nods slightly, Matthew retrieving his hand from his mouth. "_Hugh-_" he begins. Then noticing the high pitch of his voice he clears his throat and lets out a much deeper-toned "Hugh."

"You guys… never told us about Karrie living here…" Miro points out, having recovered at least enough to say complete sentences with some effort.

"She's not exactly in our inner circle…" Ricca says, glancing once at William and sighing at his obliviousness.

Karen speaks up at this point. "Karrie moved away seven… eight…?"

"Five." Karrie corrects her.

"Five years ago," Karen says with a nod. "to pursue a career as a professional flower girl, doing weddings all over the place."

"Then when I was twelve, they found out I could sing and made me a professional wedding singer." Karrie continues. "I get my voice from Mom."

Karen nods happily to this.

"And now an agent's going to hire me as a model for the Skimp-3 combination wedding dress and one-piece bathing suit! But before I go for my 2-year contract I wanted to spend a couple of months back here in Town, to see all of my old friends!" Karrie concludes.

"Hm… I think we'll leave you kids to your own doings for now." Cliff says.

"There are some things we need to check up on." Gray adds.

"Oh, that's right, I have to make sure the coop's okay…" Popuri says, her and the rest of the adults splitting off in their own directions. The shuffle was so quick Miro wasn't exactly sure which direction his parents had gone. Within moments, all adults were out of sight.

"…Hmm, now where should we go…?" Karrie begins, glancing around at the three possible paths.

"You… ahem, you must have made a good profit doing all of those things at such a young age." Miro begins, deciding that this would be a good moment for small talk. Karrie looks at him once and nods.

"Yes, I did." she says. "But I gave most of it away to charity… Those poor, starving children in random other countries need it more than I do…"

"That is so nice of you." William comments, walking up next to her and looking at her with soft eyes. "You use your wealth and overwhelming hotness- err, singing to bring happiness to other nations."

"To share your gift so selflessly, it takes such… selfless… selflessness…" Matthew adds, walking to the other side of her the same way as William.

"Uhh… yeah." Hugh says, nodding and cramming himself somewhere among the three other guys crowding her.

"…Oh, I know where to go!" Karrie says, apparently ignoring their approaches completely. "We should walk to the Town Square and then head for the beach!"

"Yes!"

"Great!"

"Perfect idea!"

"Absolutely!"

With that, the clump that was Karrie and the guys walked off, leaving Anna, Ricca, Kate, and Lumina standing there very silently. A breeze passed by them, followed by some Autumn leaves and a tumbleweed heading down the street.

"So…" Kate says, blinking once but otherwise not moving. "…what should we do?"

"Simple. Veeeery simple…" Ricca states, nodding to herself slightly. "We take the most logical, honest, forgiving route…"

The girls all look toward her, and in unison, get the idea that she had in mind. They all nod in silent agreement to it and chorus out the plan.

"Kill her."


	37. Rough Adjustments

(Before I begin this, I'd like to give a personal note to lijay7: Yes, I've been noticing that Jack has been slipping into obscurity for several chapters now, shadowed a bit by Nami and put to the same standard as his cousin-of-the-same-name, but I do promise that he'll be getting his break in the coming chapters. So Jack-fans, sit tight. Until then, on with the show!)

Filing and filing and filing – exactly what the Doctor was busily doing four, even five minutes of the day with the long absence of his highly-trained and well-educated nurse, Elli. The files included medicine shipments, supply deliveries, and… the occasional pizza order. Honestly, the Doctor had never been so busy in his life, but with only Lillia, Ellyn, and cuts and bruises filling his typical day, he could admit to himself that he had never really been busy. He could also admit that the filing of papers and selling of medicine that he had assigned Elli to do for the past 20 years was not, in fact, as difficult as he first assumed. He had even taught himself to pass the sponge into his own hand, the sponge itself being remarkably easy to simply reach over and grab. Who knew that, with Elli's absence, he could actually wheel the sponge tray closer to where he was standing if in possible need of a sponge…

And, indeed, he had needed a sponge for the past few days. Elli was reluctant to leave the Clinic on such short notice for concern of a patient currently under their care... However, the Doctor had strongly reassured her that he could take excellent care of the Clinic and their client, no trouble, no strain. Turns out that this was a bit more than a reassuring lie. Even without a nurse, the Doctor was having quite a leisurely time doing this by himself. However, one problem that plagued him throughout was his severe boredom. He quickly realized that one thing that seemed to keep him busy all day was his constant chatting with Elli. Not all of it was especially entertaining – the way the potted plants are growing, how the grapevines were doing this Summer, what William was up to, the Desperate Housewives finale – but it was the very thing that made it feel as though he were actually busy.

Currently, the Doctor was sitting at his desk, going over a small piece of paper stating that the Turbojolt XL shipment would be ready for Zack to take and deliver as per usual, scanning the fine print for the fifth or sixth time. He simply wanted to ensure that he did not miss any details regarding the shipments that may have eluded him for the past decades. That, and with the only other living soul in the building sound asleep, he was bored beyond measure. He would need to buy a new boredom measure soon if this kept up. However, it didn't.

The Doctor was startled by a sudden knocking at the door. He hadn't heard that relieving sound for far too long, as Zack usually just stepped in due to being the regular shipment-person. He stands up from his chair, hurrying to the door. Perhaps someone was sick or injured – better yet, dying! Finally, he would have something to remove the dullness of his past who-knows-how-long since Elli left…

Opening the door, the Doctor came to an even better surprise than someone with a fatal ailment. There stood Elli, smiling just as brightly as she ever did despite now being in her middle-thirties, along with her husband Cliff (whom he had no quarrel with despite being an undeserving low-life with not nearly as much job training as himself, but that was all in the past). The Doctor lets out a sound of surprise, quickly clearing the way for the two to enter.

"Well, welcome back!" he says happily. "Everything's quite in order, you'll see. For the life of me, I had nothing to do!"

"That's good to hear." Elli says, Cliff nodding once as well. Elli then glanced around once, returning her eyes to the Doctor and speaking quietly "How is our patient doing?"

"Oh, she's sleeping like a rock." The Doctor replies, pointing a thumb toward a hospital bed concealed mostly by a privacy curtain, "Hasn't said a word all day. She seems to be recovering nicely, and I'm sure she'd be able to stand and walk by now if she'd just wake up."

The three of them chuckle at this, sharing in the going-on-middle-aged-professional-physician humor.

"Well, let's see if I can get her up." Elli says, beginning to walk toward the bed. "I think she'd like to know that we've all made it back safely."

Sliding the curtain carefully to one side, Elli approaches the bed and scans over the patient with her eyes for a moment. The girl was around twenty years old, with thick black hair harnessed into two drooping braids on either side of her head, one of which laid overtop an arm sling she was currently sporting. One would think that she'd be tired of droopy pigtails after a while, but apparently not.

"May? May, dear, we're back." Elli says quietly, leaning to look closer to her face. May stirred slightly, and then opened her dark eyes to see Elli staring back at her. She smiled.

"Elli, you're home…" she says sleepily. "…What about everybody else?"

"They're all back, too." Elli replies. "In fact, even more people now. Some of Jack's relatives and another girl."

"Oh, that's good…" May says, pausing to yawn once. Blinking, she continued. "Can I go see everyone soon?"

"The Doctor says that you should be able to walk now, if you feel up to it." Elli claims. The Doctor then intrudes, walking up behind Elli.

"Let me add, though, that your arm will still need time to heal." He states. "I would like you to keep the cast on for at least another week, and then have me check it to make sure you're okay."

"Oh… Yes, of course…" May replies, nodding her head slightly and looking just a bit downcast.

"That's just what happens when you're not careful about how you save your grandpa's life." Cliff says, finally speaking and walking up to join the other two. May laughs quietly, nodding at this as well.

"What you did was quite brave," The Doctor comments. "It's really too bad about old Barley, though…"

"Yes, he is getting on in his years." Elli agrees, sighing.

"It's a good thing that May was around when he tried to milk that bull…" the Doctor adds, nodding to this.

"You can't really hold that against him, though." Cliff states. "After all, he is 97."

-

Quietly opening the door a crack and peeking in, Mary observes the quiet bottom floor of the Library, which looked so far exactly like she had left it. Gray lingered behind her, unable to see over or around her head and wondering with a small smile why Mary was so shy to enter the building that was synonymous with her very name in the town. Mary, Library. Library, Mary. No one in town could think of one without thinking of the other. After finally opening the door the rest of the way, she is quickly greeted by a sound of surprise from a man sitting at a desk and reading some random book, which he immediately drops.

"Mary, sweets!" the man calls, smiling at her. He appeared to be within his sixties, but was in relatively good shape. He wore an age-eroded outdoorsman uniform, topped with a weather beaten, wide-brimmed hat with a dusty feather poking from the side. "And Gray, too! Good to see you made it back okay!"

"Hi, Dad," Mary greets, smiling at him as she and Gray step inside, closing the door behind them.

"Hello, Basil." Gray says with a quick wave of his hand.

"Say, where's Mattie? Did you find him?" Basil inquires, looking to them expectantly.

"Yes, he's out… umm, hanging around," Gray states, deciding not to go into great detail about the Karrie situation just yet. "Has the Library been busy?"

"Eh, about the same as usual," Basil says, shrugging. He finally decides to stand up, walking around the desk and to them. "We're starting to have a bit of a regular guest, mind you. I think he's still upstairs."

"Really?" Mary says with interest. "Who would that be?"

"Stu, of all people," Basil says with a laugh. "Last I saw of him he was blazing through the third book in the Courtship for Dummies series you've got up there. Makes me wonder what he's up to…"

"I can think of one or two things." Mary says with a stifled giggle, sounding quite unlike herself. Gray looks at her strangely.

"What are you thinking?" he inquires.

"Oh, you know what it is." Mary replies, looking at him wryly. "Who was the last person you know of to take an interest in those books?"

"…Oh, yes, right…" Gray mutters, letting out a nervous chuckle. "That could just be coincidence, you know… Of course, I didn't need those books, either. They were just-"

"-for reference, I know." Mary says, swaying her head to the words imitatively. "But let's take a look just in case, it seems like more than a coincidence to me. Maybe Stu's finally thinking about it…"

"I wouldn't want to break his focus reading…" Gray begins. He then lets out a sigh, "but yes, let's check. There is some vague chance that the big guy's finally going to try something…"

"Have fun, kids!" Basil says jokingly. "I'll just stay down here, there's a chapter that really got me hooked!"

"Okay, Dad." Mary says with a small laugh as she and Gray begin climbing up the stairs. Once they are lost to sight, Basil walks back to his seat behind the desk, relocates his dropped book, and quickly finds the page he had left off at. Reading it, he chuckles slightly.

"Oh that Harry, always getting into trouble…"

Meanwhile, Mary tiptoed silently to the top of the stairs, peeking into the room and noticing the reasonably well-muscled back of this new library-goer turned to them, shoulders hunched over something and apparently not noticing them. He wore a simple white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans that were tattered at the ankles(not for style – he had crossed paths with Hannah the dog a few weeks previous, and despite her age she still had a good grip to her teeth), held up now by a self-studded belt instead of the suspenders of old. He also replaced what was once a Beatles-style bowl cut with more normal, shortened hair, gelled at the front to point straight forward about an inch or so. A final thing to point out was, in all respects, Mary and Gray suddenly noticed that he had quite nearly the muscle structure as Hugh…

"Heya, Stu," Mary says knowingly, smiling. Turning quickly to spot them, Stu almost instantly discarded his book under the desk, swallowing once.

"Oh… Umm, hey, welcome back." He greets in all the nonchalance he could muster. "Sorry I couldn't come help you find the kids, but y'know, someone had to take care of Gramma and-"

"-you wanted to catch up on your reading." Mary finishes for him, that knowledgeable smile still on her face. "What step are you at now? Number 13, Talk Without Stuttering? Number 37, the Hand-Hold?"

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Stu says sternly, his face going a small shade of uncharacteristic red.

"Oh, you're blushing!" Mary says, seeming to be having a positively great time prodding Stu about this. Gray grunts once, crossing his arms and looking away from the two. Mary was acting like a schoolgirl… Perhaps some sort of mid-life crisis… "I can't wait to tell Elli that her little brother-!"

"Elli has nothing to find out!" Stu snaps, narrowing his eyes. At least now his continued reddening could be shrugged off as anger. "You've finally gone off the deep end if you think-"

"I don't think, I know." Mary says, seeming to calm down somewhat and re-adjusting her glasses snootily. "I've read every romance novel this building has to offer, and I know. Every guy that isn't 100 social will always deny that they like someone until they have all evidence that the someone, likes them back. Take Gray here for instance-"

"We're leaving." Gray mutters, taking Mary by the braid and… escorting her back to the stairwell. Mary didn't even seem to notice, as she was still talking whilst being dragged along the floor on her feet. Gray knew exactly how the kid felt, and therefore wished him privacy.

As Mary plopped down the stairs, head vanishing after a time, and the sound of dragging became distant, Stu let out a deep sigh, looking up at the roof for a moment. Lowering his head again, Stu crawls beneath the desk, grabs his book, climbs back onto his seat, sets it on the table, and begins to read again.

"Step 25…"

-

"LOOK AT ALL OF THESE CHICKENS!" an astonished Jack shrieks, running through a rather large coop populated by quite a large number of the fowl. "THERE'S 20… 70… 50… THERE'S A LOT OF CHICKENS!"

"Umm… Yes, we do own a great deal of them… being a chicken farm and all…" a bizarre-looking, middle-aged man with a small, white headband supporting curiously long hair, a blue apron, and glasses mutters, watching as this newcomer ran between rows of nervously-watching chickens. He stood at the entrance of the coop, Nami leaning against a wall next to him.

"He'll calm down, don't worry." She states, watching as Jack continued his merry romp among the chickens.

"Should I worry about property damage…?" the man asks tentatively.

"Not unless you own something shiny." Nami replies. Just then, Jack runs right up to Nami, stopping himself by having his hands hit into the wall next to either side of Nami's head. Nami doesn't flinch, this was common enough.

"Nami! Can we bring some home? Please?" he asks energetically.

"We already have chickens at home." Nami reminds him. "And ducks. You know what Takakura said, we shouldn't have more than eight to that coop."

"Oh… right…" Jack says, downtrodden. He sits down on the floor in front of her.

"You have ducks?" the man inquires, sounding interested.

"Two or three" Nami says with a shrug.

"How do you raise them? Don't they fly away?"

"You just need to keep them happy. A nice, clean pond and regular feeding does the trick." Nami explains.

"How do I get myself a pond?" the man questions further.

"I have contacts, who have contacts." Nami explains.

"…You mean Takakura?" Jack says incredulously. "He's not really-"

"Shh, grown-ups are talking." Nami says, Jack muttering to this. Nami continues, ignoring him. "So, if you're interested, I can arrange a contract and have my people come to you."

"Sounds good," The man says, nodding. "Why don't we work out the details over dinner at the Inn?"

"Hold up!" Jack snaps, getting up to his feet and glaring at him. "I don't know WHO you think you are, Mr… umm…"

"Rick."

"Oh, pleased to meet you. Anyway, I don't know WHO you think you are, Mr. Rick, but nobody invites my wife to dinner without first consulting with me! …Wait, actually, not at all!"

"Hey, hey, take it easy…" Rick says reassuringly. "This is purely business, and a gesture between new friends. You can come if you want. Besides, I wouldn't want to ruin my streak."

"What streak is that?" Nami inquires.

"Well, you see, I usually have GOOD luck with girls." Rick explains with a chuckle. "Taking you out to dinner in a romantic way would pretty much ruin that record."

A chill silence fills the air at that moment. Several chickens ruffle their feathers, feeling that something was about to happen…

"…Let me be the one to tell you this." Jack says slowly, stepping aside a couple of paces. "If you say the wrong thing to Nami, you unleash an evil so terrifying that it can crush your very soul…"

At that, every single chicken retreated to the very far end of the coop, crowded and huddled together in one corner. Jack also takes a couple more precautionary steps back. Slowly, Nami gets off of the wall and turns her head toward Rick. At this, the room itself seemed to darken. Rick let out a small whimper, staring wide-eyed at his sure doom.

A moment later, Rick was in the open field of the farm, twenty meters away from the coop's entrance, balancing on his face, with what seemed to be several imprints of himself on the ground behind him, leading back to the Coop.

"Perhaps… I… worded that wrong…" he says to the topsoil, the rest of his body losing its balance and falling to the ground. He twitched once, but otherwise showed no signs of life.

"…Good distance…" Jack comments, having crept to the entrance to inspect the range her blow took the hapless geek.

"I'm not old yet. I still have it." Nami replies, polishing her knuckles with satisfaction.

"No kidding…" Jack says, blinking once. "…You know, it's a good thing that he wasn't around to marry back in the day."

"Why's that?" Nami asks.

"If you two got together, the wedding processions would be murder. It would be tough to tell who wears the tux and who wears the dress!"

Needless to say, Jack joined Rick soon after, beating his distance by a full foot and a half.

"Rick!" came Karen's voice from the farm entrance a moment later, quickly followed by the rest of herself, carrying what was now a 1/4-full bottle of wine. She runs up to him, turning him around to allow him to breathe. "Oh, Rick, what happened to you…"

"He'll be fine." Nami states, walking from the chicken coop toward them. She stops beside Jack. "I haven't killed anyone doing that yet. The absolute worst was a month or two in hospital."

"…You did this?" Karen asks, looking at her. "How? Why?"

"With my five good friends," Nami says, holding her fist out nonchalantly as she turned Jack over as well, "and because he said something that didn't cope with me."

"…You have some nerve, going and doing this to my husband-!" Karen snaps.

"Husband!" Jack exclaims, suddenly coming back to consciousness and staring at Karen for a moment. "How much wine do you have to take down before THAT looks g-"

Jack is sent back to Dreamland suddenly by a wayward (1/5-full) wine bottle at just that moment. Nami looks to him, and then back to Karen.

"…Nice attitude," She states, giving her an impressed look. "You're like a blonde, drunken, preppier version of myself. I say you should be the official tomboy of this town."

"I've heard that before. Ann's beaten me in every Tomboying Tourney so far, though." Karen says, standing up and still looking a bit peeved about Rick. "I only have the edge on her in the cooking portion. Now, I don't care what you've said, you hurt Rick. I have to stand up for my husband…"

Nami stands up as well, giving her a cold eye. "Well, you hurt Jack just now. I might just have to stand up for him as well."

"Oh, so you wanna go?" Karen inquires, smirking once at her.

"Hmm, wouldn't that be interesting…" Nami says. After a moment, she shakes her head. "Not now. I've had a busy time, and I'd like to rest up before another duel."

"Then I suppose I'll keep you to that." Karen says. "Tonight. The Inn. How's that sound?"

"Perfect."

-

"Are you sure you know how to use that?" whispered Lumina to Kate as she, her, and every girl currently under 17 (minus Karrie) in the town hid behind a tree on the edge of the Square. It was a cramped fit, but the evil harpy and her gaggle of zombified guys didn't seem to notice them anyway.

"Of course I do…" Kate says, looking to the loaded blowgun in her hands. "Like shooting spitballs, right?"

"Well, a bit more dangerous…" Lumina points out. "If you inhaled too much and swallowed the dart, you might… die."

"Well, whatever. If this doesn't work, we have plenty of other supplies." Ricca mentions.

"Yup. Good old Anna." Kate says, smiling to her. Anna also smiles, hefting her backpack proudly.

"Okay, now let's do this…" Kate continues, peeking around the tree to see the group a distance from them.

"Is she in range?" Anna asks.

"Looks to be… if I could just get a clear shot around those stupid guys…" Kate murmurs angrily to herself.

"Remember to just aim for the throat." Anna says. "I don't want her to suffer…"

"That makes one of us." Ricca mutters.

"I'll do my best." Kate says with a shrug.

Meanwhile, Karrie was standing near the exit leading to the beach, a finger to her chin and apparently wondering what to do next. Most of the guys, constantly circling around her, weren't exactly in the mood for giving a suggestion.

"Maybe we can go to the beach right now, and suntan…" Karrie suggests. The guys nod at this.

"…or maybe we can stay here and talk about things…" she suggests further. The guys nod at this.

"…or maybe we can go to Yodel Farm and play Parchesi…" she adds after a moment. The guys nod at this.

Humming happily, a graying but energetic merchant in a lemon-lime raincoat and a flamboyant bowler hat of some sort walks to the Square from the north entrance, twirling his thin moustache with one hand and fiddling with a pocket full of money with the other. Karrie sees him from a distance and waves.

"Hello, Won!" she calls. The guys nod at this.

Won doesn't quite seem to notice, however. From behind his translucent, oversized sunglasses one could see that his eyes were closed happily, and he had a spring in his step.

"Oh, boy, I can't believe I managed to sell fourteen SUGDW apples in just one trip!" he says cheerfully to himself as he continued his way south. "I swear, people are getting more and more gullible every da-!"

He is cut off, however, after a small dart pierced into his neck and stuck there. Won remained still for a moment, his eyes beginning to cross.

"Oh… damn karma…" he mumbles, collapsing to the ground immediately afterward.

The girls behind the tree blink once, and then look slowly to Kate. Kate gulps.

"Umm… Oops…" she mutters, glancing back at them nervously. "He got in the way…"

"So much for that plan…" Ricca states, "but at least we won't have many solicitors knocking in the middle of dinnertime…"

"Um… Anna, is the poison in that enough to kill someone…?" Lumina inquires nervously.

"Well, umm… it's fifty-fifty…" Anna replies, blinking.

"Good enough. We'll know if we're in trouble if we don't get our Christmas catalogues this Winter," Ricca says, shrugging. "We have more important things to think of right now. Anna, what else do you have?"

"Umm…" Anna says, looking into her backpack for a moment, "My sniper rifle, my grenade launcher, and- ooh, my candy necklace!" She pulls out all three, quickly placing the candy necklace around her neck and then putting the candy pendant attached to it into her mouth, munching happily.

"…Right, okay, let's go. Hurry, they're on the move." Ricca says, picking up the sniper rifle and standing up straight. Indeed the group was moving, as they all headed down the stairs toward the beach. Picking up random supplies, the girls follow behind stealthily.

A moment later, the guys and Karrie were all standing around at the beach, Karrie smiling and stepping back slightly to distance herself, as though about to announce something.

"Hey, why don't you guys take a look at the new bathing suit I'll be modeling for?" she asks. "I have it just under my clothes, if you-"

Nodding motions powerful enough to send a gust of wind at Karrie from the guys answered her inquiry well enough.

"Oh, okay then." She says with a smile, smoothing out her hair for a moment.

Some distance away, among some foliage on the ledge near the steps to the beach, the girls watched suspiciously in secret, lying out on their stomachs.

"What is she doing…?" Kate says, squinting in an attempt to see better.

"Nothing, I don't think…" Anna begins. "…Oh, wait, she's taking her vest off."

"Well that's okay. She must just be warm…" Lumina says, tilting her head a bit. "…Wait… Now what…?"

"Not sure. She's just fiddling with something…" Ricca observes. "…And now she's… OH, UGH! She can't be THAT warm!"

The girls all look away, cringing at the sight. Ricca aims Anna's sniper rifle blindly and fires, hitting an over-inflated inner tube and causing it to explode. After a long moment, they dare to look toward the group again. They were relieved to see that Karrie had been wearing a bathing suit beneath what she had recently removed. A rather stylish one, as well. Pure, silky white with several frills and a flowing veil headpiece to top it. They assume it must be the combination wedding dress and bathing suit she was talking about earlier.

"That's actually really pretty…" Anna says, tilting her head the opposite way Lumina did.

"Screw being able to swim, though," Kate states. "Imagine the water resistance you get from that."

"Let's just shoot her, we can argue over who gets the dress later." Ricca says, putting her eye to the eyepiece of the rifle.

"Hold on, I want to do it." Kate says, taking hold of it and trying to jerk it from her grip. Ricca holds steady and glances at her.

"I'm the one holding it, I get to fire it." She claims, trying to jerk back. Kate also holds steady, though.

"I think it would be better if I did it…" Kate replies, narrowing her eyes. "This is personal."

"It is for me, TOO." Ricca grunts, trying to yank back at it. The two quickly go into a tugging match with the weapon.

"I don't want you hitting Miro!"

"I don't want you hitting William!"

"I have steadier aim than you!"

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!"

The sound of a shot being fired from the rifle silences both of them, causing them to drop the weapon. Kate turns her head to see if she could find where the bullet had gone. She then gulps.

"…Well, I did just now…" she states, pointing in the direction of Yodel Farm. A hole with several splinters, visible from even where they were, was present where there had been no hole before.

"How'd that cause such a big hole?" Lumina inquires.

"If the farm's as old as the farmer is, it doesn't surprise me." Ricca replies. "That barn house is on its last legs anyway."

"I wonder if you hit anything…" Anna says, humming in thought.

"Well… Fifty-fifty, right?" Kate says, smiling a bit.

"You're a bit clumsy today, Kate." Ricca states. "Maybe you've been hanging around Miro for too long."

"Hey, watch it!" Kate snaps. "Miro's clumsy, yeah, but it's not gonna rub off on me!"

"Says you," Ricca replies.

"Shh!" Anna and Lumina both chorus.

"Let's focus!" Lumina says.

"Yeah, can't you see?" Anna adds. "Karrie's turning us against each other!"

Ricca and Kate think of this for a moment.

"…Yeah." Ricca says, nodding a bit. "We shouldn't be fighting, we should be working together."

"Yeah, you're right." Kate states. "Anna, load the grenade launcher."

"Okay." Anna says. Quickly, she sets a rather high-powered grenade into the nozzle, Lumina helping support the weapon, turning several clunky handles, and then nodding to signify she had finished the job. Kate and Ricca nod back, both taking the weapon by either side and aiming carefully towards Karrie (who was now practicing her various poses and runway walks, asking if the guys liked any and receiving vigorous applause and nodding each time). They each place their finger on the trigger.

"To friendship," Kate proposes, with a nod from Ricca.

"And to revenge," Ricca adds, with a nod from Kate.

They then both press the trigger, sending the grenade inside shooting out and flying up, up, up, much too far up, and much too far in general. After making a graceful, downward arc it lands in the water at least fifteen meters from the shoreline. They all sigh, muttering to themselves.

"…Any more ammo, Anna?" Ricca asks.

"No…" Anna states. "And that was my favorite one, too."

"…Why is that?" Kate asks.

"Well, the numbers on the side of it are a lot bigger than they were on the other ones I had." Anna explains.

"Ooh…" Lumina says, putting a finger to her chin for a moment. "I wonder what those numbers meant…?"

The sound of a massive explosion and a huge spray of water leaping up from the coast answers the question for them. The girls watch as a torrent of water shoots into the sky and dissolves away into mist. What didn't dissolve into mist was a fairly large number of fish, which seemed to fly through the air gracefully for a moment, in an arc quite similar to the one the grenade made, before making their looming descent downward, landing all around, among, and on the girls who haplessly watched from below. About a minute later, the last fish had fallen and the girls opened their eyes to see what damage they might have at least caused to Karrie and the guys. Karrie had been carried along to the sand near Kai's place on a piece of driftwood that was blown onshore by the explosion and was still sitting on it, laughing happily at how exciting that all was and looking completely fish-less. The guys had seen better days, with a squid sucking on Hugh's bicep and what looked like several minnows up Matthew's nostril, but they didn't seem to mind and were sitting near Karrie, still as possessed as ever.

"…Oh, man…" Kate grumbles, sitting up straight and brushing a fish from her shoulder. "And I'm guessing were out of sniper ammo, too?"

"Yeah…" Anna says, nodding a bit and also sitting up. "I didn't think I'd need more than two shots…"

"We should regroup; come up with a plan…" Ricca says, grumbling as she got to her feet and brushed seaweed from her capris.

"We can go to that Inn-place, right?" Lumina says, standing up and not seeming to notice the fish on her head. "That would be good to place to plan in."

"Yeah, let's go." Kate says, standing and beginning to walk (although she didn't really know the way there).

-

As they entered Doug's Place, they look around to find Muffy and Celia chatting with Anna's parents. They look at one another for a moment, an idea popping into their heads. Nonchalantly, they walk over to their table.

"Umm, Dad, Mom, we'd like to talk to Miss Muffy and Celia, alone." Anna says, a learned tone of innocence in her voice.

"Oh, of course." Jack says, getting up. Ann stays put for a moment, however.

"What for?" she asks suspiciously.

"We, umm, want to know how to cook like they do, and you know how much you hate hearing other people's recipes…" Anna replies, smiling a bit.

"…_Only because everyone makes theirs wrong…_" Ann mutters to herself, nodding and getting up anyway, proceeding to a distant table along with Jack. Pulling up chairs, Anna, Ricca, Lumina, and Kate sit down at the table opposite from a slightly confused Muffy and Celia.

"…Umm, what would you like to know?" Celia begins, not exactly sure if what they said just a moment ago was true or not.

"We want to know-" Lumina begins.

"Fish, dear." Muffy points out, motioning to the top of Lumina's head. Lumina looks up, noticing it, and quickly gets it off of herself. "You should know that it's impolite to speak with a fish on your head. Now, what were you saying?"

"We would like to know…" Kate continues after seeing that Lumina was busy trying to wring the fish slime from her hair. "…what to do in order to get our, umm, boyfriends away from Karrie…"

"We've been putting real effort into it." Ricca continues sternly. "All of our murder attempts have failed and the guys haven't pried their eyes away from that harpy since they saw her!"

Muffy and Celia seem to think about this for a moment. They look to one another, and then back to the teen(ish)s inquisitively.

"So you say that you've tried murder…" Celia says, giving them a glance.

"Yes." Anna says with a nod.

"Well…" Muffy begins. "I say, if you can't get the boys away from Karrie, get Karrie away from the boys!"

"But how?" Lumina asks, now wiping the fish slime from her hands with a napkin.

"Simple." Muffy replies. "I have a little something locked away in the Inn basement just in case something like this happened…"

"Really?" the girls chorus, not bothering to ask any questions at the moment.

"Yep." Muffy says, smiling. "Of course, I mean the Inner Inn. You'll need this key to get into the room."

She hands a key to the nearest girl, being Lumina.

"I didn't even know the Inn had a basement…" Kate says in mild awe.

"You just have to ask Tim about it, he'll know what you're talking about." Celia states. "Now, in the meantime… A good temporary way to keep the guys away from Karrie is to blindfold them quickly and then herd them from her while they're stunned. We had to do it with Marlin once when he saw Muffy after first moving in."

"And that's exactly why we live in opposite ends of the town, too." Muffy points out.

"…Eh, you learn something new every day." Kate says. She then smiles and nods in thanks. "Thank you Muffy, Celia. I'm glad you're not evil anymore."

"Yes, thank you so much!" Lumina says, standing up with a smile.

"Oh, you're welcome." Celia says, waving it off. Muffy nods and does so too. Ricca stands up along with the rest of them, and they slowly begin to walk.

"…Say, I have a good idea." She begins. "Why don't we have a couple of the guys go down and pick the… whatever it is up? That way we don't have as many to keep an eye on…"

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!" Anna says. "I guess just two would be enough, right?"

"Yeah, probably," Kate agrees, giving it a shrug. "And this way we can all stay here, and make sure they don't try something."

"Then that's what we're doing?" Lumina inquires.

"Yep," Ricca nods. "Now let's get it done…"

After the girls had all left the Inn, their quick chatter long-since-distant, Celia looks to Muffy questioningly.

"Don't you think it's dangerous?" she asks. "Letting them get it? Who knows what it can do…"

"Don't worry." Muffy reassures her. "They should be safe as long as they're careful."

"But… imagine how strong it must be now…" Celia pursues. "By now it should be at its strongest point, there may be no stopping it if-"

"Those children are in the prime of their life, too." Muffy replies, adding a sigh after a moment. "If anyone can stop it, it's them. And if not… maybe it'll come here and take out Nami in the meantime. Either way, we have to keep it very quiet…"

Celia smirks, nodding in understanding of this new, hidden plan. Apparently, there was still some speck of evil left within those two. Their bizarre and likely unhealthy desire for Jack was going to give them this one last surge, this last effort, this last, scant opportunity to get what they've been yearning for all of this time. They raise their glasses (of water, since it wasn't evening yet) and clink them together with their briefly renewed hope.

"Vengeance…"


	38. Duel of Duels

(I actually wrote two chapters worth of content out of my boredom, so I decided to split it in half, update with this half today, and update with the second half six days from now, which is the day before I leave on vacation. PS: Must… finish… what I want to… without… making… story drag on… Grk… 

Oh, and remember to review, pleeease!)

"…So where are we going again…?" a beleagured Hugh inquires, walking down a tree-lined path with an also rather confused-looking Miro plodding along beside him.

"Home, they said. To get something…" Miro replies, looking at the key in his hand which he was given quite suddenly. "And then we head right back, and bring the thing to them…"

"And we're doing this why?" Hugh pursues.

"…I don't know." Miro says, shrugging. "I just sort of followed along after they snuck up and blindfolded me. That wasn't much fun…"

"At least they didn't tranquilize us and throw us shirtless into the forest…" Hugh points out in an attempt at optimism.

"Well, they did have to tranquilize you. And I only barely got my shirt back…" Miro reminds him. The two then realize something. Looking down at themselves, they come to a sudden realization.

"…We need new shirts." Miro says.

"Yeah." Hugh agrees, seeing his cut-up zipper-shirt with rolled-up sleeves, a large hole on the left shoulder, and a huge gash along the chest, not to mention other, smaller cuts and holes. "…Dad's gonna kill me, I know it."

"He's just a sweaty old man with a large head, don't worry. Unless he had Daachan with him, I think you could get away." Miro comments, still looking at the damages to his own outfit, which included five holes where Hugh himself had nearly made him meat on a spit. "As for me… ugh, it was hard enough finding black fabric the first time in a town where everything's pretty and colourful…"

"Okay, then we both have problems." Hugh admits, both sighing. "…But about the thing we're looking for… Maybe, if we're sneaky enough about it, we could…"

"…Hey, that's a good idea! We can give it to Karrie!" Miro says, nodding to his suggestion. "She'd like that!"

"Yeah, I bet she would…" Hugh states, nodding in agreement to this. However, Miro suddenly begins to get a second wind regarding this.

"…Wait, what if this thing's… evil… or worse yet, something she doesn't like?" he inquires, looking at Hugh with concern. Hugh hums in thought for a moment.

"…Well, if it's not good enough for her, we'll just follow orders and give it to who we're supposed to." Hugh says, nodding to himself. "…And, well, if it's evil, we'll take it out."

"…Oh yeah…" Miro says, a smirk on his face. "After all, we are the toughest, roughest, two-fisted, baddest to the bad, most worn, torn, lean, and learned guys under 20 in all of Forget-Me-Not Valley, am I right?"

"Oh yeah!" Hugh hoots just as smugly as Miro, flexing his well-toned muscles in agreement. Miro attempts a pose as well, but quickly abandons the idea.

"Fighting we're impressive, fighting together we are un-stoppable." Miro states, putting some strut into his walk for a moment. "Let's see 'em try this on for size!"

"Let's see 'em!"

"Let's see 'em!"

-

"Let's see 'em." Nami says, giving her knuckles a crack and standing at one end of a table in Doug's Inn. It was later that evening, and the entire group, including Karen, Rick, Karrie, Basil (as was typical), and the Doctor, were lounging around the Inn, sharing stories and having the occasional sip of wine (grape juice in the teens' case). Jack and co. had recently told Karen enough of the adventure's story to sate Karen and they were preparing for what looked to be a one-on-one bar brawl. Rick and Jack had slithered away into a table separate from the one their wives were in, and were now watching warily as the proceedings proceeded.

"Hm, my, not many people come against me looking so smug…" Karen admits, tilting her head a bit. She was standing at the other end of the table, eyeing Nami from across it.

"It isn't exactly like I have much to worry about." Nami states, slowly putting one hand into her pocket. Jack tensed. "I have plenty of experience."

"Do you now?" Karen inquires, turning around slowly and waving her hand vaguely at everyone in the room. "Let me tell you now, I've beaten eeeevvveryone in this room that I've gone against. I have a very good record."

"Well, I've beaten people in towns you have yet to find on a map." Nami claims. "I've perfected my tecniques by whittling them off of some of the best."

"Ooh, so you have techniques?" Karen inquires, refraining from turning and placing her arms on the surface of the table. "Let me be the one to tell you, it's not technique that helps, it's the time and effort that you put into it. That's what lets you know how much you can hold down."

Nami raises an eyebrow at this, her hand pausing in her pocket. "…Hold down? What do you-"

"Let the contest begin!" Karen proclaims, smiling and holding her hands out. Most of those whose attention wasn't already directed to the two of them directed it now. Nami comes halfway to pulling out one of her knives, but stops as she sees Doug approaching from behind the counter, carrying a tray with several, several bottles of wine on it. Her eyes widening slightly, she lets her knife drop back into her pocket and looks at Karen.

"…What is this?" Nami asks, looking at Karen with some confusion.

"This…" Karen begins as Doug sets the tray down between them and backs away quickly. "…is a drinking contest!"

"A… a drinking contest…" Nami mutters. "I thought we were going to fight…"

"What, a bottle-fight?" Karen asks. "Been there, done that. This is the true challenge. Let's see what you have to offer!"

Just then, Jack mutters to Rick quietly from the table they had gone to.

"What's in those bottles…?" he asks.

"Wine." Rick replies simply. "Delicious, tap-or-bottle draft wine fresh from the Aja Winery. It's good, and a pinch strong."

"Ooh…" Jack says in wonderment. "Wow, our bar doesn't have wine. We have a great drink mixer, he makes all kinds of stuff. Never straight wine. You guys must be poor."

Rick fixes him a glare, and then looks back to the two ladies. Karen sits down at her chair, leaning back on it and crossing her arms smugly, awaiting Nami to sit as well. Having quickly gotten over the shock of the competition not being exactly how she planned, she pulls out her chair to sit. However, before she actually can sit, she is suddenly met by Kai, Cliff, Gray, and the Jack from Mineral Town, who crowd behind her and speak to her with an air of warning.

"Don't do it, Nami, don't do it!" Cliff says, shaking his head a bit to emphasize.

"She's never been defeated, rumors say that she was born with a wine cap in her teeth!" Kai adds, nodding a bit to emphasize.

"She once outdrank a full-grown cow that got a hold of one of the wine taps!" Jack claims, grabbing one of her shoulders and looking quite serious about this statement.

"It's a very, very poor idea." Gray states, glancing to a smirking Karen every once in a while. "All odds say that you'll lose your honor in this match-up."

"Four things:" Nami begins, halting Cliff and Kai's shaking and nodding and forcing Jack's hand off of her. "I'm doing it, babies don't have teeth, cows don't eat meat let alone drink, and I refuse to deny a challenge no matter what I lose or keep."

"That's true." The Jack still sitting at a table whispers. "Because of that, we've had some interesting Poker matches."

"Hm." Rick says tonelessly.

"Not regular Poker, either-"

"_Enough_…"

"Ooooh boy…" Matthew mumbles from the table that he, William, Kate, Anna, Ricca, and Lumina were tightly fit in (this was to keep the guys from getting a view of Karrie from around them), looking toward Kate for a moment. "Sorry to say this, but your potential relative is…"

"screwed." William finished for him, sighing. "Karen can take in more wine than air."

"Nami's strong." Kate says simply. "She's also one of the most sober people you'll ever meet. It'll take a lot of that puny alcohol before she goes weird."

"If you say so…" William says, likely not convinced. He stirs around his grape juice with a straw boredly.

"My Dad was a professional drinker." Lumina says, lowering her juice and placing her hands on the table politely. "I heard that they used to call him Tanker and he used and got a lot of money from contests. Used more than got, really."

"Yeah? And what happened with him?" Matthew inquires.

"He and Mom died in a car crash." Lumina replies, glancing down at the table for a second.

"That stinks…" William says, still absently stirring his drink. "It makes a lot of sense, but it stinks."

"Sort of removes the whole mystery of it." Matthew adds, resting his head on one hand. "But it's not a really bad way to go. Not the best, but not bad. I'd prefer to fall asleep and have cardiac arrest, but that's just me."

"I'd rather be lying out on a bed, with everybody I know smiling at me and I just drift away…" William says, using his free hand to make the appropriate motion.

"I'd want to do something people would remember me for," Kate says absently. "like save a family of cats and children that get stuck up a tree, and then have the tree hit by lightning or something, but let's quit talking about this stuff."

Turning to Lumina, Kate suddenly notices something. She reaches and gives Lumina a tap on the shoulder, getting her out of her daze.

"Hey, Lumina, you're somewhere in the twenties, aren't you?" she inquires. "That means you should be able to try wine. Why are you having grape juice?"

"Oh. Well…" she begins, looking at the others and then back to Kate. "I wouldn't want you all to feel left behind."

"Oh." Kate replies.

"Well, thanks." William adds.

"…Kate, how old are you again?" Lumina inquires. "You're older than Miro, I know…"

"Me?" Kate replies, seeming to think of it for a moment. "I'm… seventeen, I'll be eighteen soon…"

Matthew coughs in mid-sip of his juice. He looks to Kate in some shock. "Really? You seem just as young as us!"

"I am young!" Kate suddenly snaps, giving him a penatrating glare. "I'm only about two years older than most of you!"

"Yeah, but you don't look it." Matthew replies, clearing his throat. "I mean you look very, umm, keen. More girlish than the age suggests."

"You mean cute?" Kate inquires.

"I refrain from answering that." Matthew says immediately.

"Why?" Kate asks.

"On the grounds that there is no proper answer." Matthew explains. "If I say you are, it may imply something rather unintentional, and if I say you aren't, you may think I'm calling you… ugly."

"…What was with the pause before the word?" Kate asks, giving him a look. Matthew only sighs.

Returning to Nami (finally), she had already sat down on her chair and had her eyes shut, taking a few deep breaths in preparation for this. She had done a small share of drinking contests during her late teens, but she had only won as many as she lost (but also minding the fact that most of her opponents were collage football players and various aunts and uncles). This Karen lady seemed a honed drinker, and having a perfect record for it didn't instill Nami with confidence. Not that she needed any, she was always confident in herself, even now, with this disadvantage and the four guys behind her still whispering to her to get the heck out of this.

"Will you just clear out?" Nami mutters sharply, not turning her head or opening her eyes. The guys look to one another, concluding that it was a lost cause and returning to their seats. After a moment, Nami opens her eyes.

"Done the yoga excersise, huh?" Karen says, still as relaxed as ever.

"Ready when you are, Leadgut." Nami returns, her eyes narrowing.

Karen laughs a bit to herself. "Karrie, dear, count the score."

"Okay, Mom." Karrie says, finding a pencil and paper and getting into a ready position.

"Ready…" Nami says, taking a bottle and quickly twisting the cap open with her teeth, spitting it to the floor.

"Set…" Karen continues, also taking a bottle, placing the neck of it on her bicep, closing her arm and twisting the cap open.

"…Go."

-

"So, how far is the Town from the Valley?" Hugh asks, looking to Miro.

"About a day…" Miro replies, shoulders sagging as he walked. It had gotten dark out, and the simple trees lining the simple path just weren't enough stimulation to keep him 100 percent awake.

"Ugh… So, a day to get there…" Hugh comments.

"And a day to get back, yes." Miro replies. "So two days, more or less."

"We should jog, it'll cut the time in half." Hugh reminds him.

"I can't jog…" Miro protests. "My endurance is awful."

"Don't give me that crap." Hugh replies, glaring at him. "You lasted with me for a stupidly long time, there's no way you don't have endurance."

"…Fine, correction," Miro states. "My endurance is awful IF I'm not fighting for my life."

"Dammit…" Hugh mutters.

Several minutes passed in silence until Miro remembered a question that had not exactly plagued him, but had been giving his curiosity nerve a poke every once in a while.

"…Hugh, what made you wake up one day and think 'Uhh… Lumina.'?"

"Hm?" Hugh replies. He then seems to think for a second. Miro gives a suggestion.

"Was it because she's got a loaded grandma on her deathbed?"

"…No, no." Hugh replies, shaking his head a bit. "It wasn't that she was rich, besides, her Gram's healthy as a muel even today. It was that she was… just… there, all the time. Lumina was there before Kate came along, Lumina was there before you were born, Lumina was there before your dad even moved in."

"…That's it?" Miro inquires. Hugh shakes his head again.

"Naah. It's also that she had… and, well, still has… this thing to her. Like, she's always wondering about something. And by doing that, she gets me wondering, too. She gets me thinking, and nobody else does that." Hugh answers, seeming to be thinking right now, at only the very thought of her thinking.

"Does she now?" Miro says, blinking once. "Jee, opposites do attract… But there must be more to it, right? Am I right?"

"Well… uh, of course…" Hugh mutters, looking down at the ground for a moment.

"Ah, it's the dress, isn't it?" Miro says, smirking. "That slinky, slim, cotton-fiber no-questions-asked plaid dress with that snappy black belt in the middle that constricts the fabric juuust enough to see a tiny peek of her outline, and those fashionable, brown high-step clog-shoes with those black stockings and that white shirt that just tells you there's oh-so-much more to it than that little black belt could ever offer to give you…"

"…Nrr… yeah…" Hugh admits grudgingly. "Oh, and Miro?"

"Yep?"

"Don't do that again."

"Okay."

A few more minutes passed in silence, until a new question suddenly sprang to Hugh's mind. This was a noteworthy event, of course, and he quickly shared his inquiry with Miro before it slipped out of his ears.

"Hey, Miro, what made you pick Kate?"

Miro widened his eyes, and then blinked, and the furrowed his brows, and then raised one eyebrow, and then squinted, and then crossed his eyes slightly and furrowed his brows again. Finally, he looks to Hugh.

"…I honestly have no idea." He says. "I mean, Matthew talks about me and Kate just being around each other for so long that we developed a similar sort of inner emotion, but I really don't know why I like her. She was sarcastic, she was mean, she was a constant threat, she made me fall into water whenever possible…"

"…Oh, I know." Hugh suddenly states. Miro looks at him.

"You know?" he asks incredulously. Hugh nods. "…All right, indulge me."

"…Guh?"

"Tell me."

"Oh." Hugh says. Taking a breath, he explains simply. "You had no other choice."

"…Oh, right." Miro mutters. "Only girl within 10 years of my age in the entire Valley… If I were one to take a chance I suppose I could've gone for Lumina, but then, well, one of us would definitely be dead by now."

Hugh nods to this.

Suddenly, Miro spots something ahead of them in the path. He couldn't tell much from the dimming light, but it was definitely alive.

"Hold up…" he mutters, stopping. Hugh stops as well, confused at first but then seeing the thing before them.

"What is that…?" he asks.

"I'm not sure." Miro replies. "Stay here, I'm checking it out…"

Slowly, carefully, tenatively (if more words are required it, find a thesaurus), Miro steps toward the thing. As he approached, he first realized it was a brownish-orange hue, and then as his nearing vision allowed him to see its shape, his look of caution became one of relief and happiness.

He quickly began walking up to it, smiling. "Greaser!" he says happily, giving the horse a nice pet on the muzzle once it had looked up to him after munching a bit of grass. "Wow, I haven't seen you forever! What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Greaser?" Hugh echoes from behind him, the sound of his footsteps approaching the horse and Miro. "Oh, hey, it's that horse of Jack's…"

"Sure is." Miro replies. He then notices something about the animal. "…Uh oh. I think he's been pushed beyond his warranty. Poor guy…"

"Maybe your parents used him for transport so they could find you easier…" Hugh suggests, feeling Greaser's mane curiously.

"Hmph, those cheaters…" Miro grumbles. "Well… I think I know how to make him roadworthy again."

"How?" Hugh inquires.

"A nice, little crop always gets him juiced up…" Miro replies, removing and unzipping his Rucksack to find a nice, fresh carrot within.

"…Where'd you get that?" Hugh asks.

"That farm we went through to get into town." Miro replies.

"You mean your third cousin… second uncle… that guy named Jack who isn't your dad, his place?" Hugh questions.

"Yep. He has a crapload of crops, he won't miss just one." Miro says, shutting the Rucksack and slinging it back onto his shoulders. He then holds the carrot out in front of Greaser and, as planned, the horse bites into it and quickly munches the whole thing down.

"Is he going to run now?" Hugh asks. Miro laughs a bit.

"Of course!" he replies. "Carrots always give him the juice to run. What, you think I don't know how to hotwire my own parents' horse?"

"…Right." Hugh replies, sighing. Miro then walks to the side of Greaser and, with a quick hop not unlike his father's, jumps onto the stallion's back. Hugh looks at him for a moment.

"…What?" Miro questions. "Hurry, hop on, this'll shave a crapload of time from our schedule!"

"No way." Hugh states, waving his hand once. "There's no chance I'm getting on that tiny horse with another guy."

Miro smirked. "Okay, fine," he says, beginning to wheel Greaser around in the right direction. "Then do what you suggested in the first place. Jog."

With that, he sets the horse off at a trot. Hugh mutters to himself and then begins running, trying to keep up with the animal.

-

Seven full bottles into the competition each, Nami and Karen continue to stare each other down defiantly and keep a tight grip on their eighth bottles, somewhat for support. Karen was smiling dimly, some colour washed on her face, while Nami spent much time with her eyes closed, attempting to keep her balance and sporting very red cheeks.

"…Suh… How'a ya feelinnn'…?" Karen asks, chuckling silently to herself.

"…Ju…" Nami begins, pausing to shake her head a bit and continuing. She made an effort to keep her words sounding normal. "…Jusst… fine…"

"…This may also answer why I'm having grape juice…" Lumina suggests, she and the other young people watching with a little bit of discomfort.

"Then, let'sh go… to numba 8…" Karen says, swaying a bit and smirking happily.

"Good… tu… do that…" Nami mumbles, not making a whole lot of sense but the general feeling being that she was ready.

"Boy-o. I've gotta say, your wife's not bad." Rick admits, watching the battle intently. "For an inexperienced drinker, keeping up with Karen for this long is a sight to see."

"If you say so." Jack replies. "Nami's always been tough, no denying it. …What's in those bottles again?"

"Wine." Rick repeats, looking at him once.

The eighth bottle passed. And then the ninth. Finally, Karen and Nami were staring down the opened necks of their tenth bottles. Nami was beginning to sway, and gripped onto the side of the table with her free hand to keep herself balanced. Karen had become a bit quieter, minus the odd quick exhalations that could be interpreted as laughter.

"Mmmr…" Nami grumbles, attempting to shake her head again. "W…W-we't… bedder… zzstop now…"

"Heh'm…" Karen continues with some attempt at a laugh. "wwv… wvhy… vwhy's thad…?"

"'Cus…" Nami explains, now trying to focus on her breathing. "Ifv we dow't… y'll be szleeping all th'… tomorrow… and Kair… Car… Karrie… 's only here for a while lon…ger…"

"Yy'n… Y'righ'…" Karen replies, hicupping once before continuing. "I godda… n'joy while my dag… daugh…ter's sztill here… And szo… I caw… call's this… a draw…"

Several people clapped at this, stunned at the display shown today. They hadn't seen such a good drinking contest in a long while.

Jack and Rick, finding this to be their cue, get up from their chairs and run to their respective wives quickly.

"Oh, boy, that was something…" Jack comments, taking Nami's right arm but then pausing to look at Rick. "Those things really tanked them, what was in those bottles?"

"Wine!" Rick repeats, giving a frustrated sigh as he took Karen by the shoulders. "What are you, daft!"

"What? Of course not! I'll have you know I have perfectly good hearing!" Jack says defensively. He then turns his attention to Nami. "Now… Let's see you stand up. I'll give you a hand, no trouble…"

"I think… I'vvve got'a go t'bed now, Dear…" Nami states, looking up at Jack with her sharp eyes glazed over in her stupor.

"Yes, we're going to bed…" Jack replies, slowly helping Nami to her feet by taking either of her arms and keeping her steady by them. "Just start walking a little and we'll get you to somewhere you can sleep in no time…"

"You can use one of the rooms in the Inn." Doug informs him. "We have a lot of room, even with several of you taking beds here already… And, umm, will you need any help with her?"

"No, no, she's fine…" Jack replies, leading Nami carefully to the stairs. Nami was shutting her eyes and walking with much of her focus intent on keeping her balance. Slowly, the two of them begin to ascend.

"And then… we c'n dance…" she mutters quietly. Jack blinks for a moment.

"Oh… of course, yeah, we can dance…" he replies, just deciding to go along with it. "But I think we should wait until you can walk well again, don't you?"

"Oh, w'll yeah…" Nami replies, seeming to grow more and more tired by the moment. "Miro doeszn't dance…"

"Miro's gone back home for a while, remember?" Jack says, trying to counter a pointless statement with another pointless statement.

"Yes…" Nami states. "Op'n the door…"

They had reached the top of the staircase and were now facing one of the Inn room doors. Jack nods in compliance and carefully removes one hand from Nami, turning the door hnadle and pushing it open. He then leads Nami into the room, directs her to the nearest bed, and allows her to carefully flop down onto the mattress. Jack lets out a sigh of relief, taking a seat on the floor next to the bed and looking to Nami's sleeping face next to him. Smiling a bit, he removes the Rucksack he rarely ever didn't have with him and looks around in it for a moment. Finding what he was searching for, he pulls a hefty, green, well-worn book out and opens it to a certain page. It was his diary. Taking a pencil from his pocket (he had abandoned pens since one exploded up his nose when he was young), he put it to the paper and began to write.

_Fall the… something, maybe the 8th. Today… Today, finally, I WASN'T the stupid one!_


	39. Oooooh, PostClimatic Conflict

(Well, this is it until I get back from vacation. I'll be gone for about 12 days, so don't expect much on my front for a looong while. I hope this'll be enough to keep ya!)

"I'm getting a bit bored…" Miro mutters to himself, trying to get into a comfier position with the horse. Yawning once, he looks up to the sky and then, remembering something, turns around. "How're you doing back there, Hugh?"

"GREAT…" Hugh spits, running at the same speed as Greaser's trot. He liked running, but he had never liked running as much as his father did. Was he going to start now? No.

"Okay, then." Miro replies, shrugging. "I was gonna slow Greaser down to a walk, but if you say you're doing okay…"

"Something tells me you said that before…" Hugh says between pants.

"Yep." Miro responds, nodding a bit. "But last time I did, I got nailed in the head by a chocolate bar. Too bad you don't have any."

"Yeah, too bad." Hugh mutters, quickly grabbing a rock from the road and hucking it to Miro. It bounced off of his skull, as planned.

"Oww!" Miro shouts, holding the back of his head tenderly. "Hey, watch the upper-body strength!"

Several more minutes passed before Hugh came with another question.

"Are we gonna be going like this until morning?" he questions,wiping some sweat from his forehead as he continued to run.

"Yep, if we keep this pace up." Miro replies, now lying out leasurely on Greaser, using his mane as a headrest. "I'm not sure, but I might be able to get some sleep like this."

"Lucky you…" Hugh hisses.

"Hey, you're the one that didn't want to get on the horse." Miro states, his eyes now closed. "Me, I like horses, mostly since I don't have to walk, or jog, like you have to now."

"Just shut up…" Hugh mutters, glaring at him despite his eyes being closed. "I wouldn't want to lose a friend by having to kick your-"

"I'm going to interrupt you just before you say an inappropriate word to tell you something," Miro states, his voice then changing to a more serious tone. "…We're being watched."

"Huh?" Hugh replies. "Hold on, hold on, stop the horse. How do you know?"

"Because…" Miro replies, giving Greaser's mane a tug to stop him and keeping his eyes closed. "I have a very neat little talent. I can hear small things if I focus hard enough. I can tell when there's a disturbance, even in the wind."

"…Sweet." Hugh states, slowing to a stop next to the horse. He then glances around. "Well… What is it? Where is it?"

"Umm…" Miro replies. "There's just one, and it's about the size of a… dog. I'd guess that it's a-"

Just then, a grey, sleek, fur-coated dog-like creature bounds up from the trees. It slows to a walk at the road, seeming to be limping slightly, and stops, sitting in front of them.

"…Wolf." Hugh says. He walks up to this one, kneeling down next to it and taking a look at its face. "Well, you don't look so bad. I wonder if you have any pals near here... What do you want?"

The animal lifts its paw up, being the one it limped on. Hugh nods his head a bit.

"Gotcha." Hugh says. "Umm, Miro, it looks like it's hurt. Do you have anything?"

"No." Miro replies.

Hugh stands up, turning to Miro. "Well, we can't just leave the poor thing. Not when it comes right up here, asking for…"

Hugh trails off after noticing something. In the surrounding bushes, several, several, several pairs of eyes stare out at them from the darkness, the occasional tongue sliding across unseen lips also visible. Hugh then turns to the wolf in front of them. It wasn't limping anymore.

"…help…" Hugh finishes, backing away anxiously. Miro, noticing the tone to his voice, opens his eyes curiously.

"What is it?" he inquires. Hugh doesn't answer, but motions quickly to the bushes beyond. Miro notices this as well and gulps.

"…Okay…" he begins. "…On the count of one… **ONE**!"

With that, Miro and Hugh both begin racing down the path, too quickly for the animals to react. Greaser was going at a full gallop, but motivation kept Hugh going at an equal pace. Immediately behind them, twenty or so grey wolves were giving chase, which made a certain thought pass through Hugh's head.

"MIRO!" he yells. "I THOUGHT YOU SAID THERE WAS ONLY ONE!"

"IT WAS AN ESTIMATE!" Miro replies, unfortunately still lying back on the horse, which allowed him to see the pack giving chase behind them. He gripped Greaser's mane for balance and occasionally kicked at the odd wolf that got in pouncing range.

"YOUR ESTIMATES SUCK!" Hugh snaps. Suddenly, a wolf jumped at him and clamped its teeth onto his upward-pointing tuft of hair. Hugh just kept running, though he looked quite uneasy of it.

"Hugh! Do you need any help!" Miro questions. "There's a wolf on your head-"

"I KNOW THERE'S A WOLF ON MY HEAD!" Hugh shouts, glaring at Miro. "AND IT TAKES FOREVER TO GET MY HAIR LIKE THIS!"

Hugh suddenly realises what he said. It was true, it took a lot of effort to get his hair into the perfect, curved point. And now this wolf ruined it just like that? He would not, NOT stand for this. Hugh suddenly stops running, using this momentum to swing the wolf once by his hair and cause it to let go at just the right time to plow into other wolves. He then glares at the ramaining ones, Miro stopping Greaser behind him.

"You are _not_ getting away with this…" he growls, cracking his knuckles and looking up at what had happened to his hair. It was worse than he thought. "It… It's FRAYED! FEEL THE PAIN!"

Miro watches wide-eyed as a ferocious Hugh begins soundly beating the crap out of the hapless wolves. Squinting, he covers his eyes partially with his hand and peeks occasionally to see if he was done. After a few moments, Miro begins to bore of it.

"Hugh, they're- Hugh! Hugh, that's enough!" he calls, sighing once. "They're all leaving, the ones that can walk…"

Indeed, any of the conscious remaining wolves quickly beat a hasty retreat, yiping and scurrying off too quickly to even remember to put their tails between their legs. Hugh sighed, crossing his arms and turning to Miro.

"Well, let's go." he mutters.

And indeed they did go. They walked for what may have been half an hour before they came to a steep hill. It seemed familiar, and as they climbed the familiarity increased bit by bit. Finally, as they reached the top of the hill, they found themselves overlooking none other than Forget-Me-Not Valley, their home.

"Ah… Finally, the old place…" Miro says, smiling down at the quaint little village.

"Yep…" Hugh replies. "…But, umm, how are we here already?"

"We did run a long way…" Miro reminds him. "Wolves are nasty, but they'll give anybody good motivation. No harm, no foul."

"Says you." Hugh mumbles, putting his hands up to his hair in an attempt to fix it up a bit.

"Well, it was worth that much, I think." Miro states, slowly climbing off of Greaser. "You can go home now, Greas- AAAAH!"

His scream was due to stumbling a bit after dismounting Greaser, tripping over a stray rock, and proceeding to tumble and roll down the path heading into the Valley. Hugh begins to walk down, following along and chuckling.

"Been asking for that since we started this trip…" he murmurs to himself, still chuckling.

Once they had made it to the bottom of the slope and Miro had finished dusting himself off, the two of them begin toward the Inner Inn. As they walked, they noticed the unfathomably small, abandoned shed that used to house Galen back in the day.

"What are they gonna do with that thing now, anyway?" Miro inquires. Hugh just shrugs.

"We should cram our parents in there once we say we want our own place." Hugh replies. Miro thinks about it for a moment, and then shrugs.

Once they had crossed the bridge, the two proceed to the Inn and open its doors, stepping in quietly. They were immediately noticed by a busily-cleaning Ruby, who dropped her duster in shock and hurries over to them.

"Miro! Hugh! You're back!" she says, smiling at them gladly. "How have you two been? Is Kate back, too? And Lumina?"

"Umm…" Miro begins, deciding not to start major conversation just yet. "We're really just here to pick up something, but I'm sure everyone will be back soon." Hugh also nods to this.

"Is that right…?" Ruby replies, looking at them for a moment. "And what would that be…?"

"Whatever this key is for." Miro mentions, pulling the key from his pocket and showing it to her. Ruby's expression changes to something more serious for a moment.

"…I'm sure you two must be tired." She states quickly, forcing another smile onto her face. "Hugh, your parents are already in bed most likely, and Miro… you don't want to go to your farm just yet. I'll let you two sleep in the rooms tonight, free of charge. Rock's not in his, he's airing out on the Blue Bar roof right now. Had too much Stone Oil at another of his 'parties'."

"Umm… Well, okay." Hugh mutters. "Then we'll pick up the thing tomorrow morning."

"I'll sleep in the room Mom used to." Miro states. "I'm sure it's a bit musty by now, but… I guess it may feel like home, if I had some strange, phychic link with Mom before I was even born… or… something like that."

-

Having quietly escaped from their families' houses and met in the Town Square as planned, William and Ricca were now in the midst of enjoying a midnight stroll down the streets. This was more Ricca's plan than William's, however, as she was hoping this walk would clear his head of any Karrie-like thoughts. It seemed to be working, as well, since he had only mentioned her a few times in the beginning, and it had dwindled to basically nothing. Now, William was fairly silent, and neither of them spoke for several minutes. This silence was broken first by William.

"…I don't know… I feel plain, undefined…" he mutters, sighing once. "Everyone else seems so different from the average. I suppose that makes the average me."

"What?" Ricca replies, looking to him as they walked. This topic seemed to sneak in from nowhere. She doesn't remember a time that he had said something like that before. "No, you're not plain. You're as different as any of us…"

"I don't think so." William says, shaking his head a bit. "Back when I was… Whitey – When I had that power given by the Goddess – my feelings were almost completely held back. When Miro had it, he kept his feelings. It's like his were stronger than mine…"

"Or maybe the Goddess only made the power hold back your emotion so you wouldn't follow or help us." Ricca reminds him. "That way you would be able to find Daachan. Once Miro had the power, that part of it wasn't needed anymore."

"That could be it…" William says unsurely. "…Or maybe the Goddess was trying to do me a favor. Give me a cold personality that people would remember me by, not this Joe Normal one that I've had forever…"

"William, you have more personality now than you ever did as a taciturn white-haired thing." Ricca states, looking at his downcast eyes. "And you couldn't be completely plain, or you wouldn't match."

"What?" William asks, finally looking directly at her from this statement.

"Well, think about it." Ricca says. "Hugh is outward while Lumina's inward, Miro used to be very brooding while Kate was expressive, Matthew is smart while Anna is…"

"Sweet?" William finishes for her, a small smile on his face.

"Yes, of course, that's it." Ricca replies, laughing lightly. "Now… if I had to pick a word for myself, what would it be? Dark?"

"…If you had to pick a word, yes, that might be it." William replies, nodding a bit. "But there is a lot to you, you're very complex…"

"So…" Ricca begins, taking his hand and looking closer to him. "You must be something very different to counter how dark I am, or I wouldn't like you nearly as much as I do."

"Or maybe I'm very simple to counter how complex you are."

"Or maybe you're the opposite kind of complex from what I am." Ricca reminds him, undeterred that her romantic notion went ignored. "Maybe the problem isn't that you're simple, but you're a kind of complex that they haven't even found a word for. A very rare kind to counter the common, moody kind that I am."

"…Yeah. Yeah, that's it." William says, seeming to brighten up considerably. "Thank you, Ricca. I mean, simple people don't know that they're simple, right? I wouldn't even be thinking of this if I was as simple as I give myself credit for… But one thing..."

"What?" Ricca inquires.

"I don't think you're a common type of complex." William states. "Maybe… everyone who is complex is a unique type of it, and of the thousands of different types there are, you and I are opposites."

"…Yes. You know, that just might be it." Ricca says with a small smile.

"Well, this is quite a discovery. I think this calls for a special detour." William proclaims. "Let's go to Mother's Hill."

"And then what?" Ricca inquires.

"We'll think of something, I'm sure, being the complex people we are." William states with a smirk. Ricca returns it, and the two of them take a turn leading out of town and to the path of the Hill.

-

Miro wakes up from his amazingly comfortable, dozy sleep feeling refreshed and, for once, not stiff or sore. He had only slept in a real bed twice in the past weeks, and yes, still had the memory of waking up the first time locked in his mind. However, looking left and right, he was disappointed to see that he was neither flanked or pinned by two girls this time. Despite that, the sheets were comfy and that nearly made up for it.

Getting up, Miro smoothes his hair to the best of his care of how he looks, and walks to the door. He had forgotten to change out of his clothes when he went to bed, since he never did when he was out-of-doors. He had taken his shoes off and left them at his room door, however, so once he had reached it he pulled them on, stood up, rubbed his eyes, and opened his door.

Stepping out of his room door, he walks to the stairs, still rubbing one eye. Descending the stairs, he finds Hugh standing around in the waiting room, leaning against a wall and tapping his fingers against his arm.

"Finally." He mutters, seeing Miro. "You're a big sleeper, I've been waiting for hours!"

"Ugh… You're one of those 9pm to 5am types, aren't you…?" Miro mumbles, shaking his head a little.

"No, I'm a 9pm to 8 type. It's 10:15!" Hugh grumbles.

"Oh, pardon me for being damn normal…" Miro mutters.

Just then, Ruby scurries into the room from the kitchen, followed by a nervous-looking Tim. Both were carrying large trays of food.

"You two must be hungry after that trip!" Ruby states… almost demands. "We've fixed you nice, big breakfasts to fill you up! You're growing children, you need your vitamins!"

"Umm… I'm fifteen." Miro reminds her. "My growing's almost done. I may get a few more inches, but-"

"Almost means not, Miro!" Ruby says quite hoarsely, shoving her tray into his hands. "You need everything you can get!"

"Well… I'm nineteen, my growing probably is done…" Hugh says, shrugging a bit.

"Probably is means not, too!" Ruby replies, taking the tray Tim held and shoving it into Hugh's hands as well. "Now eat, and take your time! You don't want stomach cramps!"

Two minutes later…

"Oh, wow, that was great!" Miro says, licking his fingers despite using a fork for most of the food. Before him was a completely empty tray where once stood enough food to feed two people. "I haven't had a full meal in ages!"

"Yeah, this is a great change of pace!" Hugh says in agreement. They were in the kitchen, since that was the only place that really had a table. Hugh's tray was also completely empty.

A shocked Tim and Ruby look at each other, and then back to the two teens. Tim clears his throat and speaks.

"Well, you two had best be going, it's a big hike to Town…" he mutters. Miro looks at him, confused.

"What? Didn't Ruby tell you?" he inquires. "We need something from here that the girls said to bring."

"I- I'm not sure what they could possibly mean…" Ruby says, chuckling a bit and looking quite nervous. "We don't have anything like that…"

"They said it's in your basement, and that Muffy knows what it is." Hugh proceeds, getting up from the table. "So where is it?"

"Oh, Muffy's lying…" Tim says, nodding to himself. "You know her, that crazy broad…"

"Mm… I don't think so." Miro states, also getting up from his chair. "I have the key with me. Keys don't lie… other than key cards, because they're cards, not keys. Then again, they do open doors…"

"…Fine." Ruby finally says, sighing. "We'll show you to the basement, but we're not following you down."

Miro and Hugh nod, and Tim and Ruby escort them out of the kitchen, into their bedroom, and reveal a trapdoor beneath their carpeting.

"Go inside. You'll know what to use the key on." Tim states, reluctantly opening the trapdoor and revealing a dark staircase.

"Okay. Got it." Miro replies, nodding slightly. He and Hugh slowly proceed down the steps, the sound of Tim and Ruby scurrying away quite apparent behind them. The steps continue down about eight feet until they reach a solid, stone floor in a narrow hallway. Small lights on the stone-laden walls and the odd torch dimly lit the hall. As they proceeded, they met a dead end, to the right of which was a reinforced wodden door sporting a single, small window with three iron bars about head level with them.

Neither teen says anything, but obviously look a bit nervous at this kind of tight security. Miro looks down to the door handle, above which was a small keyhole. Miro reaches into his pocket for the key, and pulls it out carefully. He slowly brings it toward the keyhole, but is suddenly taken aback as a set of human teeth clamps onto one of the iron bars at the window, quite near his head. Miro and Hugh both jump back.

"…What the HELL is that?" Hugh shouts, keeping a wary eye on the teeth gripping to that bar. The rest of its face was too shadowed to determine much of anything. After a moment, the thing lets go, its face disappearing into the darkness and a voice, apparently male, speaks to them.

"_Let me out…_" it says slowly, all sorts of spite in its tone.

"Th-that's what I'm doing…" Miro stammers, swallowing and trying to calm himself down. "But… you have to come with us."

"Let me **OUT!**" it repeats, voice echoing and sounding infuriated. The other two flinch at this.

"Listen, listen…" Hugh says, holding his hands out. "We're letting you out, and we're bringing you somewhere…"

"Somewhere good." Miro adds.

"Yeah." Hugh agrees. "But you have to promise you'll come with us…"

"I…" the voice begins, holding to its angry tone "…will come with you."

"Oh, good." Miro says with a satisfied smile. "Then I'll just get this key in here, and…"

Miro put the key into the keyhole, turned it, and the moment after a click was heard the door was rammed down from the inside, falling down and landing on a hapless Miro and Hugh. The person quickly came out of the room, stepping on the door and therefore also Miro and Hugh, and is heard running part of the way down the hall, and then suddenly stopping.

Hugh pushed the door off of himself with an effort and then stood up, allowing Miro to crawl out of the way before he let the door fall to the ground again.They then both look toward the person, who was standing about six meters down the hall and facing them. He stood near a light, allowing them to see a fair amount of him. He wore what seemed to be a yellow short sleeved button-up shirt with a red shirt underneath. He also had green eyes and a very vibrant, hyperactive expression to him. What was most shocking about his features, and what caused both Miro and Hugh to gasp in surprise, was that he looked amazingly similar in age and structure to Miro, the only difference being this person's bright, blonde hair. He even had a pair of gloves similar to his own…

"…Wh…" Hugh begins, trailing off quickly.

"…Who… Who are you!" Miro says, staring wide-eyed at the guy.

"Heheheheheheh… HAHAHAHA!" the teen laughs, looking quite… happy to be out of his cell. He calms down after a moment and looks at the two. "Call me… Bry." He states.

"Hm… Well, Bry, you've got to come with us now." Miro says, getting over his shock after a moment. "So… let's go."

"…Yeah, oh sure, yeah, RIGHT!" Bry replies, laughing at this statement. "Now that I'm finally out, there's no WAY I'm letting you guys tell me what to do! I'll go wherever I want!"

"Tch, then I guess you want to go to the emergency room…" Hugh states, cracking his fingers and beginning to walk to Bry. "You're coming with us, or you're facing the Hughmeister."

Bry smiles strangely at this, and instead of running, takes two steps back for preparation and rushes at Hugh, jumping and aiming a startling drop-kick dead center on Hugh's chest. Hugh is knocked off balance, falling down backwards and quite nearly crushing Miro, who managed to dodge just in time. Bry landed on his hands and feet and quickly gets up, facing away.

"Goodbye, Hughmeister." He says, chuckling.

Miro took this time to run at him, but Bry quickly presses himself against a wall to let Miro run past him, kicks off of the wall at an angle to jump right over Miro with a flip, and then placed his foot on Miro's chest in mid-air and pushes off of him, using him as a launch pad to begin running down the hall. Miro is pushed back and falls backwards onto the floor. Bry is heard quickly running up the stairs and laughing happily, if not a bit insanely. Quickly, his voice had vanished.

Miro and Hugh both get up, shaking their heads and looking around.

"Man…" Miro mumbles, looking to Hugh. "How did that happen? We were both owned by a guy locked in a cell for who-knows-how-long…"

"Ugh, and the kid runs like the wind…" Hugh mutters. "How could he be that fit?"

Miro was curious of this as well. He quickly walks to the doorway, looking in.

"…A treadmill…" Miro states, noticing it. He then squints to get a better look at it. "…With 60,000 miles on it…"

"What!" Hugh exclaims. "That's almost double what I've done!"

"There's also a weight bench and a yoga mat." Miro observes. "Great, so he's had nothing to do but become a fast, flexible super-fighter…"

"Looks to be." Hugh says. He then noticed the door on the ground. "And look at the hinges… Seems he's been pounding at that door for a long time. The lock mighta been the only thing holding the door up at all…"

"I wonder if there's a hole that they dropped food through…" Miro wonders, partly to himself. He then looks up, and notices one such hole. "Oh, there is…"

"We'd better go find him." Hugh states, deciding to leave other questioning for later.

"Yeah." Miro replies. "Who knows how long it'll be before he finds the path out of the Valley…"

The two immediately begin to run, ascending the stairs as quickly as they could.


	40. IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!

(Hullo. Well, I'm long-since back from vacation, and I finally have this Chapter complete. I suffered from a bit of a block for the past while… Anyway, for those wondering, the character Bry is indeed the same sort as the Bry from A Secret in Forget Me Not Valley, but the two stories are not actually connected. Being friends with ASiFMNV's author, I decided to add Bry. Curious fact: Basically every teenage character in my Fic (Miro, Matthew, William, Anna, Ricca. I don't think Kate though, sadly) is also in that one, since we have equal rights over the characters. Another friend who features these characters in her work is M1DN1GHT, but not often enough to be consistent, though you will find interesting cameos in Five Friends and the Fight for the Region, and Dark Journey: All the Way Up. She's also planning a romance ditty featuring probably one of the most popular couples in this Fic. …Anyway, I'm boring you with this crap, time for the important stuff!  
One last note: ...I wonder if anybody before this has depicted Nami getting totally sloshed. That doesn't happen every day...)

Having scurried up the stone staircase in all haste, halted only by the occasional trip and stumble, Miro and Hugh both cram their way out of the small trapdoor entryway at the same time. Wasting no time in running out of the room, they noticed the absence of Tim and Ruby anywhere in the main room. They were likely hiding in a cabinet somewhere, judging from how they acted before. They seemed terrified of this Bry fellow.

Bursting out from the Inn door, Miro and Hugh stop a few steps forward before stopping, glancing around for the kid. At the same time, they spot him, on the path to their left, looking at them plainly with the occasional chuckle.

"All right, pal, you've had your fun." Hugh states, narrowing his eyes to him. Miro stood next to him, preparing himself. "Come with us right now or you're… you'll be… umm… Miro, cover for me…"

"You'll be too busy picking up your teeth to pack for the trip." Miro finishes for him absently.

"…Right, yeah, good enough." Hugh says, nodding. "You hear that? Now get in line or you'll… ugh, forget it, just do it!"

"Heheh, no," Bry replies, laughing a bit more. "I'm not going anywhere with witless dolts like you! It's not like there's anything stopping me from running away!"

"Oh yeah?" Miro challenges. "The only way out is through us, the rest of this Valley is surrounded by unscaleable, impassable cliffs, too unnaturally smooth for anyone to climb!"

Bry blinks, and looks around to see if this was true. From what he could gather, it was. Everything surrounding was… surrounded. He turns back to them, and to the slight unnerve of the other two teens, narrows his eyes and smiles.

"…SUPER RUNNING CLOTHESLINE!" he shouts quickly, running at an equally rapid speed straight toward Miro and Hugh. Before they could do anything, he stuck both of his arms out to the side and rammed into the two, his arms colliding with their necks and knocking them off of their feet. They slam to the ground in unison and Bry sped away, laughing maniacally.

A few moments later, the two of them groan and look up at the sky blankly.

"That kid's really getting on my nerves…" Hugh hisses, shaking his head a bit.

"Yeeeah…" Miro agrees. The two of them begin to get up, muttering. "Why are we being schooled by this guy? Did we not just have a spectacular fight to the death, like, three days ago?"

"Yeah," Hugh says. "We could really use our powers right now…"

"I suppose." Miro replies.

"'Course, you had to go and have Lumina claw my eyes out-"

"DON'T EVEN START TO COMPLAIN ON HOW YOU LOST YOUR POWER!"

"…Oh yeah, the rock…"

After standing up fully and shaking the concussion from their heads, Miro and Hugh look out to the path that Bry had just run down, and was already lost to sight to. Hugh grumbled.

"How are we supposed to get this guy?" he asks. "He's gotten the jump on us every time, and we couldn't touch him…"

"We'll just have to get the jump on him." Miro concludes. "Come on, I have a plan."

He then breaks off at run, Hugh following a moment later. The two of them, however, were stopped by a chorus of voices while they were passing by the entrance to Jack's farm.

"Miiiroooo…" they whined. Miro, stopping, turned to see the work force running their farm lined up, looking worn and weather-beaten. A large version of the family cat was stalking around the pasture in the background.

Miro stared back at them for a moment and, narrowing his eyes at them, sighed.

"Daryll, get the antiserum for the cat and learn to use a sickle. Nic, Nak, Flak, remember to give the chickens their space, they're bigger than you. When Rock's peeled himself from the Blue Bar roof, show him the Large Watering Can for Pete's sake. Get Vesta to milk the cows, and Murrey… keep up the good work."

Both Miro and Hugh immediately run off again. Hugh looked at Miro, impressed.

"That came pretty smoothly to you." He comments.

"…Yeah, I suppose it did." Miro replies. "I mean, well, I am sort of a farmer, so-"

"Oh, Miro!" came a voice from behind them, just before they had crossed the bridge. They turn to see Grant and Samantha, Kate's constantly-addled parents, looking at them eagerly. They both looked quite Asian, yet Kate oddly didn't resemble one much, which always confused him but it wasn't the time for that mystery just now.

"Oh, hey, long time no talk." Miro says tonelessly, eager to get running again.

"How has Kate been?" Samantha asks, looking at him hopefully.

"You never found out for yourself." Miro states. "Why didn't you go looking for her with my parents?"

"We trust that Kate is responsible enough to fend for herself." Grant states. "We wouldn't drag her back by her heels."

Miro smirked. "I have to relay that one to my parents…" he says, half to himself. He then speaks fully to Samantha and Grant. "Kate is fine, healthy as she's ever been."

"Really?" Samantha inquires. "That's nice to hear. Of course, it is expected… such a tomboy she is…"

"Uh, well, Kate is…" Miro begins, pausing to find the right phrase. "She's… Well, the trip's made her a little softer. She doesn't go out of her way to be nasty anymore."

"I'm sure she still is nasty, though." Samantha continues, looking weary and sad. "She may never learn, being a mean, uncaring, unladylike tomboy like she is. You turned out so well, Miro. You were a tomboy's son, yet you're so gentle and caring, unlike our Kate. Oh, where did I ever go wrong…?"

Miro spent all of three seconds deliberating his next action and then took it, punching Samantha square in the jaw and leaving her unconscious with a bewildered Grant standing next to her. Miro then motioned for Hugh to follow him again and they continued on.

"What was that about?" Hugh asks, a little shocked at Miro's decision.

"She never shuts up about Kate, it's been turning my crank for years." Miro explains. "Tomboy this and tomboy that… she's gotta learn before she becomes my mother-in-law."

"Oh… Yeah, that makes sense." Hugh agrees, nodding. "Still, I think that punching someone in the face might be illegal."

"And not a juror in the land will convict me!" Miro states. "She's pissed everyone off in this place with her 'Kate, Kate, Kate' talk. I think that's why they're not allowed to live in the town that Grant works in anymo-"

"Miro!" comes another voice from their right, when they were only a few strides away from the town's exit.

"WHAT?" Miro snaps, looking over to see Dr. Hardy staring back at him. Naturally, he and Hugh recoiled slightly upon his sight.

"I was just wondering, have you seen my pants anywhere?" Hardy inquires.

Miro sighs. "Yes. Vesta's been using them as a strainer for vegetable juice for the past twenty-five years."

"Ah, that's where they've gotten to…" Hardy says. He waves to Miro in thanks and passes by the two of them to retrieve his long-lost pants. Hugh looks at Miro for a moment.

"Vesta's been using them for that?" he says, looking incredulously to Miro.

"Yep." Miro replies.

"…Ugh… That's where that tangy flavor comes from…" Hugh gags. "'Special fertilizer' my a-"

-

"Ahhh…" Cliff sighs out, allowing himself to sink up to his chin in the bubbling, warm waters of the Hot Spring. He, Elli, Gray(who still wore his cap), Mary, Nami, and her respective Jack (who had basically carried Nami to the Springs in hopes that it would aid her through the hangover) were enjoying a peaceful, relaxing dip as a personal reward for hauling their middle-aged bodies halfway across existence and back in the hunt for their beloved children. "This feels great. I can't remember a time that the Springs have felt so clean…"

"I was afraid I'd never have a nice bath like this again…" Mary states, wiping the steam from her glasses for the twenty-third time,and smiling.

"Yes, we were all starting to smell like monkeys, weren't we?" Elli states with a light laugh.

Nami, wearing a one-piece bathing suit that she had taken along, was resting her head on a rock that was bordering the Spring, Jack nearby to make sure she wouldn't pass out into the water, but for some reason making an effort to keep everything from his neck down safely concealed in the water.

"This really helps…" Nami mutters, her eyes closed but still not looking fully at ease. "…Jack, I know I hit you once or twice on the way here, but the headache was just…"

"Eh, no trouble," Jack says nervously, half of his chin now in the water. "I mean, I'm glad to share your pain a little. That Karen was a fierce one, I coulda never lasted as long as you did."

"…Thanks." Nami replies simply, Jack giving her a look. Apparently, the two of them had some secret that Jack was buttering Nami up for and Nami was refusing him.

"Speaking of Karen, has anyone seen her today?" Mary inquires.

"She made it out of the Inn." Cliff states. "I think I heard her hit a lamppost, but by now she's probably slept it off."

"She has." Gray adds. "She was sitting around with Rick and their daughter at the beach about an hour ago."

"…You two must have good memory." Jack states. "Or you kept an eye on her."

"Yes, how do you know these things, Honey?" Elli inquires upon Cliff. Mary looks to Gray as well, expectant.

"W… well…" Cliff begins.

"Of course anyone would be curious of what Karen does when she's off-center…" Gray states. "The drunk naturally catch the eye of sober people."

"I'm sure they do." Mary counter-states. "Just as they, or shall I say she, has, every Thursday and Monday for the past 18 years…"

"But you still can't get enough of her." Elli adds, giving Cliff a hard look. "You boys never do change, do you?"

Cliff and Gray pause for a moment. The tension in the Hot Spring was beginning to build.

"…Now that's putting words in our mouth." Cliff states.

"But you are right, we never do 'change', per se." Gray adds.

"And let us show you an example." Cliff concludes Gray-ish-ly. The two look at each other, nod, and look back to their wives. Suddenly, with a great bound, they pounce at them, the resulting flailing and splashing sending water and small waves across the Spring. Jack, inspired by the chaos, rises himself slightly out of the water and-

"Don't even think about it…" Nami warns him. Though her eyes were still closed, she knew full well that Jack would be glad to add to the mess. Jack grumbled, sinking down to his chin yet again.

"…Can I at least change this swimsuit now?" he whines.

"No. I told you, we brought it for a reason." Nami states. "You're wearing it to entertain me until I'm feeling better. You wouldn't wear it on the horse, anyway."

Jack mumbled some incoherent words into the water. At about that time, two figures became visible heading up the path, toward Mother's Hill. Once the battling adults noticed them they froze, glancing toward the two.

"…Oh. Hello, Matthew." Gray greets, struggling out of his wife's half-nelson to adjust his cap.

"And hello, Anna." Elli adds, pulling Cliff's various limbs off of her. "Umm... Where are your mother and father?"

"They're still getting some work finished up at the farm." Anna states, looking a little amused at running into these older peers in the middle of such a childish-looking fight.

"I, umm, asked them Anna's leave so we could go to the Hill…" Matthew adds sheepishly. He was still unsure as to whether his parents were aware of him and Anna's togetherness.

"Ah…" Mary says knowingly, apparently fully aware of their togetherness, and who had probably assumed it long ago.

"Do you know where Ricca's parents are?" Anna inquires. "We haven't seen her today."

"Oh, them. Umm…" Cliff begins. "…Kai and Popuri… I think they're still at their house."

"But the door was locked and the blinds were down…" Anna says in confusion.

"…It's… you know, a special occasion." Cliff finishes, getting himself out of the awkward light by sinking into the water some more.

"…Ohh…" Matthew states plainly. Clearing his throat, he motions to Anna. "Well, let's go…"

Proceeding down the path and leaving the steam of the Hot Spring behind, Anna and Matthew travel around the path, past the lake, over the footbridge (where tire marks from the bus were still visible on the ground), and up the winding path leading to the peak. Once at the peak, they spent a few moments surveying the scenery and casting the occasional glance down at the smoldering wreckage of the bus below.

"…It's always nice to come up here." Matthew comments a bit hastily. "It's much nicer now, since we've been gone for so long…"

"And it's much, much nicer now, since we've been gone for so long and we're both…" Anna begins, pausing for a moment and taking Matthew's hand sheepishly. "…here."

"…Y… yes…" Matthew agrees, nodding a bit, looking to their locked hands, and then to her.

Just before this could be officially made the second-most romantic thing to happen between them in the past couple of weeks, Anna catches something in the corner of her eye and looks, startled, to the area of the mountain behind them that still had foliage. Gasping and turning around (quite nearly throwing Matthew over the edge since they were still holding hands), Anna proceeds cautiously to what she thought she saw, Matthew walking with her after a moment of being startled.

"What is it?" Matthew inquires, following closely with Anna and giving her the occasional, confused look.

"I thought… Behind those bushes…" Anna begins. Once they had reached a part of the path that was sprouting grass and foliage around them, Matthew noticed the bushes she was talking about and walked forward carefully. Anna trailed behind him, watching as Matthew stuck his arms into the leafy branches carefully and pulled them apart, allowing them to see the mysterious thing. Anna immediately screamed, terrified.

"OH MY GOD SOMEBODY KILLED RICCA AND WILLIAM AND LEFT THEM HALF-NAKED BEHIND THE BUSHES!"

-

The echoing scream met the ears of the hot spring-goers. Elli and Cliff's faces immediately hardened. They knew that the two were fine - William wasn't dead… yet.

"…We have to go throw our son off the cliff now…" Elli and Cliff(haw-haw) state, immediately beginning to rise out of the water.

"W-wait, hold on! No! NO!" Jack, Gray, and Mary state in a jumble, forcing them back into the water to their protest.

"You don't know the whole story yet," Gray says patiently.

"Give them a little time, maybe it was a misunderstanding…" Mary adds.

"Besides, they have to come down this path eventually," Jack points out. "Wait until then to give them hell."

-

Both William and Ricca wake up with a start upon Anna's scream, first looking to Anna and Matthew, and then to one another, immediately screaming and yelling for themselves as they saw each other, scrambling backward a few feet from each other on the ground.

"Wh- WHA!" Ricca splutters out, covering her more respectful self with her arms as she did some odd combination of looking around for her shirt and gaping at William in shock. "D-did you-!"

"No!" William says immediately, doing the exact same thing Ricca was doing for some strange reason. "Did you-!"

"No!" Ricca yells hoarsely, finding her shirt, strangely discarded close to a nearby tree and struggling to get it on her person as quickly as she could. "Y-you're sure you-?"

"Of course not!" William shouted. "…Hey, wait, you're a B-?"

"SHUT. UP." Ricca snaps, finally pulling the shirt over her head with a flustered look on her face, stray strands of pink hair still floating near her eyes. "…Not like you're a sight to behold, yoursel-"

"Hey!" William snaps, finding his own shirt partly within a bush and yanking it out, fitting it over himself quickly. "There's no need for retorts about how I look shirtless, I think it's a perfectly good size for y-"

"WILLIAM. STOP TALKING." Ricca flares through clenched teeth. William promptly shuts up, the two of them then glancing over to a stunned Anna and Matthew. "Well… Umm…" Matthew begins, the urge to shuffle away becoming most apparent in his eyes. "…You were obviously here first, so-"

"WE DIDN'T!" Ricca and William chorus, both knowing exactly what the other two were thinking.

"Then umm, you two just ran into that tree and fell down…?" Anna suggests, smiling understandingly but looking very fidgety. "And your… shirts fell off…?"

"N- b- wait- No, we don't know how, but…" William begins frantically, desperately trying to think of how he could possibly explain the situation. "L-last night, Ricca and I came up here, and stayed and we slept together right here- I mean- No! I meant-"

"Anna, we came up here and fell asleep," Ricca cuts him off, speaking to Anna since Matthew seemed a little preoccupied in twitching to himself. "But we never… when we fell asleep, we were…"

"Dressed?" Matthew says through clenched teeth, a nervous smile still on his face.

"Yes!" Ricca and William chorus, both getting to their feet finally.

"Then why weren't you when you woke up?" Anna asks.

"We don't know!" William insists. "I mean, something must've happened while we were… but…"

"Maybe… somebody wanted to set this up…" Matthew suggests, returning ever-slowly to his usual self. "You know, hoping that one of you would wake up and think that the other had… yeah… so you would think they were creeps and run off, become a mountain hermit and battle Gotz for scraps of lizard and rat meat for the rest of your life…"

The group turned to him for a moment. Matthew gave a shrug symbolizing 'just a suggestion' and looked back to them.

"…Okay, well, some of that might be right." William admits. He puts a hand to his chin in thought for a moment. "…But who? Who would want to frame us in such a blunt effort to split us up?"

A realization cane to Anna and Ricca's minds right then and there. Looking to each other as though to register that they had the same idea, they then stare down the path with equally furious (though in Anna's case, with a touch of characteristic poutyness) looks on their faces. Slowly, they speak three words out with a searing hiss.

"It was _her…_"

(Note again! This Chapter is going to be my 40th, and I'm likely to get past 200 reviews thanks to it. I know an exit ramp when I see one, but I still have stuff to do before I can finish this! Therefore, I must oppose these signs from the gods of obviousness and press on! Ah, and next Chapter will be the final scrap between Miro, Hugh, and Bry. Lots of action, I assure you. Just a few more Chapters now…)


	41. Can You Say 'Ouch' ?

(I've been holding this off for a long time, though I suppose now I should follow the trend and make sure people don't think I'm part of some Natsume cohort trying to get people to buy into this game. Mind you, it is obviously a good game, but I'm still not a cronie. So, Allow me to introduce you to…

**THE GREAT DISCLAIMER**

(Ahem)

I do not own Harvest Moon.

I do not own Marvelous Interactive.

I do not own Natsume, and if I did I would fire those stupid translators and replace them with people who actually know some of the language they're trying to translate.

I do not own Jack.

I do not own the other Jack.

I do not own Nami or Karen, but I will not rest until I do.

I do not own Ann, nor any of the 12.5 billion spa-boiled eggs that fans have been giving her over the years.

I do not own Mary, Elli, or Popuri, for they are minor characters and unpopular to most. But I do like Mary somewhat.

I own Miro, by name, but I do not own Miro's appearance and some of his personality.

I partly own William, Anna, and Ricca. My associates own the other part.

I fully own Matthew, which is always nice.

I fully own 'Whitey' William. Everybody likes an anti-hero.

I do not own a pathetic, sad man with a disgusting physique who is unloved by all. Or his son Hugh.

Speaking of Hugh, I don't own him. Though I am considering it, since I can then sell him off to rabid fangirls for an enormous sum of money…

I do not own Daachan. That thing is still goddamn scary.

I recently found out that I don't own the cat name Kanna. I honestly had no idea that it was the name of an InuYasha character. Which, you ask? Well, you know that creepy little girl in white that lugs around a mirror all the time? Yeah, that one.

I do not own InuYasha. If I did, Sesshomaru would get more stage time and Kikyo would DIE ALREADY. I also do not own Kagome's Magical Anime Skirt of Doom and Not Showing Anything Even During a Massive Gust of Wind.

I do not own Celia, or her 3-inch thick flax dress.

I do not own Muffy, but she can own me any da- uhh… I mean, I do not own Muffy.

I do not own Van or Vesta. I can't fit them in the garage…

I do not own Cody. In fact, I hate Cody muchly because he's turning my kid into an artist when I want him to be a musician. Grumble…

I do not own Nic, Nac, Flak, or anything else under eight inches in height.

I do not own Murrey, for that is unhealthy.

I do not own Hardy, for obvious reasons.

I do not own Daryll, but I think I have a shirt like that… only, like, less destroyed.

I do not own Cliff, but I think I did shoot his bird accidentally before FoMT came around…

I do not own Gray, no matter how cool one eyeball peeking out from under a hat is.

I do not own Kai. I think he might be bald.

I do not own Kate, though I stand by my opinion that she's cute and is a much more natural match for Nami's son.

I do not own the ChildKate shipper industry, but I am a proud member of it. And my Fic's the first one I've seen to have that pairing…

I do not own Lumina, though my little brother is completely infatuated by her so I am checking prices on eBay.

I do not own The Lord of the Rings series. I'm not quite as smart as Peter Jackson and much better looking than Orlando Bloom, who speaks 60 percent through his nose.

I do not own the Gundam series. If I did, I would yank that one guy's neato silver mask and ride into town with it, on my trusted camel.

I do not own Gwen Stefani. If I did own Gwen Stefani I sure as heck wouldn't be sitting in front of this computer right now.

I do not own Samantha. Grant beat me to it.

I do not own Grant. I don't need an excuse.

I do not own Rock, Tim, or Ruby. I'm not even sure if Tim and Ruby own Rock. I mean, just look at him. He's not pudgy or weird at all.

I do not own Bry. He's my good friend Corinne's doing.

I do not own Harris, or the fact that he's a pansy.

I do not own Takakura's eyebrows.

I do not own whatever else of Takakura there is.

I do not own you, but I do pwn you.

My name is Mr. Unimportant, and I. AM. CANADIAN!)

-

Once they had ran a good way down the path leading from the town and entered the mass of forest nearby, Miro orders Hugh to sneak on the sides of the path with him. Hugh had much to protest about, since there were many branches and brambles and other pointy things impeding them along the way, but Miro insisted that it was the best idea.

"…And why's that again?" Hugh mutters, as a small branch cut across the area of his face that already had a bandage over it anyway.

"Simple." Miro states. "This Bry guy… He always had the edge on us because he had the element of surprise. We don't expect him to be so quick and sudden, but if we get the jump on him, he won't have time to go hyper on us."

"…Oh, yeah, I get it." Hugh replies, nodding a bit. "But, uhh… he's gotta be a hundred miles away by now. Do we have to stay hidden in these stupid bushes until-"

"Don't worry. There he is." Miro says suddenly, signalling for Hugh to be quiet with one hand and pointing to Bry with the other. Indeed he was there, visible in a gap between bushes, about 20 meters away. He was staring in the opposite direction, down the path, simply standing there. Miro and Hugh were both puzzled by this, but took the opportunity to begin approaching him. As they walked, Miro could hear mumblings from the blonde teen.

Bry was staring down the path with a restrained eagerness. He waned to keep going, but…

"…I'm free." He mutters to himself, smiling a bit at this. "Yeah, I'm free. I can go wherever, do whatever – the world is my oyster-fish… But what now? Something's not right… I feel funny, like there's something missing in my chest. Stupid me… I need to get this missing part filled up, and then I can really do whatever I want… Hmph. All of this freedom, but still I don't feel just right."

Suddenly, Miro and Hugh jump out from the bushes next to him, charging at once and aiming at his general self with various limbs. In an instant, he ducked between them and grabbed each of their ankles, causing them to trip to the ground. Standing up again and taking a few steps back, Bry looks at them.

"Oh well, at least there's still your butts to kick." He states.

Getting up quickly, Miro and Hugh turn to face him.

"…How did you know we were there?" Miro demands.

"Heard you!" Bry replies tauntingly. "I heard all of those twigs breaking a long time before you showed up!"

"B… but… that's my thing!" Miro spits. "You can't be really tough AND steal my thing!"

Bry laughs at this, apparently finding it greatly amusing. At that moment, Hugh managed to squeeze a great brainwave from his tiny brain and adds his own heroic bit to the scene.

"Give up."

Bry stops at this, and gives Hugh an odd look.

"…Why?"

"Because, you can't win." Hugh continues, flexing various parts of himself in preparation. "Me, I'm the final boss. Miro here's the dinky main character who ends up being really strong. When the two fight, you know it's the biggest battle in the game. But if the two of us team up, you know that we're impossible to beat!"

Miro was ready to retort about the 'dinky main character' bit, but decides to let Hugh's attempt at intimidation continue. Bry simply chuckles more.

"…Ah, you know what I am?" he asks, eager for Hugh to respond.

"What's that?" Hugh inquires.

"I'm the hidden boss!" Bry states, giving another chuckle of pride. "I'm stronger than both of you, and almost nobody can beat me!"

"…How do you even know about hidden bosses?" Miro inquires, giving him a stare.

"Played Tales of Symphona." Bry replies with a shrug. "S'the only game I have, so I unlocked everything."

"Tales of…" Miro begins, confused.

"…Hey, wait a minute, I have that game!" Hugh shouts. "I play it every evening after measuring my daily sweat!"

"Oh? Who's your favorite character?" Bry returns, giving Hugh a look.

"Kratos, he's hardcore…" Hugh replies, returning the look. "You?"

"Lloyd."

"You're a LLOYDER?" Hugh snaps, looking genuinely angry. "You bastard! We're kicking butt, Miro!"

"Right…" Miro begins, completely unaware of what in the world they were talking about. "Tag-team. You first, Hugh."

With that, Miro takes a few steps back, allowing Hugh to begin the battle against Bry. Cracking his fingers yet again and then cracking something in his arm that sounded greatly unhealthy, Hugh gives Bry a smug look.

"I…" he states. "am the son of the great Wally! You will not win this one, boy!"

And with that, he charged at Bry, aiming a wide swing at him. Bry ducks beneath Hugh easily enough, and aims a punch directly into Hugh's cast-iron-solid left pec. Hugh only smirks.

"You've gotta do _way_ better than that." He states. Bry smiles, complying by then grabbing an area of the pectoral between his fingers and giving it a nastily painful twist.

Hugh cringes, feeling the manlyness sap from his body as he is reduced to his knees by the crippling twister. "Gaargh… AAAGH! MIRO! TAG! TAG, MAN!"

Miro pauses, observing what Bry was doing with interest.

"…Why did I never think of that…?" he wonders with a sigh. "Would've saved me so much crap just a few days ago…"

"_Miiirooo_…"

"All right, all right, you wimpering sack of pansy." Miro mutters, tagging Hugh's outstretched arm. Bry immediately releases him, Hugh limping a safe distance away to nurse his abused area of person. Miro gets into one of his patented fighting stances and faces Bry with determination.

"I…" he states, much like Hugh did. "am the son of the mean and powerful Nami and the, um… mentally… pure… Jack. Suffice to say, I should keep you busy for at least a few seconds…"

Miro and Bry run at each other, both trading similar blows between each other with their arms and feet. The moment that both of their elbows and one knee were locked with each other, Miro pauses to give Bry a look.

"…Okay, this is more than coincidence." Miro points out.

"Hm. What did you do to learn how to fight?" Bry inquires.

"Um… Mostly self-taught, we could say, but right now I'm using what I read in a book… Say, did you also read _Jet Li's How to Kick Butt in Fifteen Seconds_?"

"Yep." Bry states. "Did you read the sequel, _Jet Li's How to Kick the Butt of People who Didn't Read the Sequel_?"

"Wha-?"

"That's a no."

With that, Bry immediately unlocks all of his limbs from Miro's, spins once which somehow places himself behind Miro, grabs his arm, and yanks it backward over onto his shoulder.

"Gargh… I didn't know my arm could do that…" Miro states, wincing a bit in pain.

"It can't." Bry says, smiling a bit as he forcefully threw Miro over his shoulder, whom landed on the ground in yet another of his ungraceful heaps. After a moment, Miro got back up to one knee, pausing to re-adjust his arm in the process.

"…Okay…" he says tenatively. "…You're obviously not the average random hyper phychopath. Hugh, we need to take this guy on at the same time."

"…Yeah…" Hugh mumbles, wiping off his watering eyes and gingerly removing his hand from his freshly-tweaked nib as he stood up. "Yeah… Let's get him… One…"

"Two…"

-

Meanwhile, in the library of Mineral Town, the four still-beleagured protagonists from Mother's Hill were deep in debate of what the next course of action would be. Matthew was reading a book while speaking, while William was holding the sides of his head with slightly watery eyes, having suffered a painful ear-tugging from his beloved mother when they had passed by the Hot Spring. Thankfully, the other three teens were hasty to explain the whole situation to her before William was permanently made into an elf.

"So, if we're right about this, we need a plan right away." Ricca states, looking to everyone for nods of agreement. Anna at the very least nodded.

"But we're not sure what Karrie will try next time." She points out. "We don't know if she'll even try anything at all…"

"She will." Matthew states, not looking awat from the book. "I doubt if she'd want to stop at just Ricca and William."

"…What are you doing, researching on her?" William inquires, noticing how into the book Matthew was.

"No." Matthew replies simply.

"…Then why are we in the library again?" William proceeds.

"…Oh, I'm doing research on 'hollaback'. I have doubts that it's a real word." Matthew explains, nodding to this. The group pauses for a moment, then continues.

"Okay, then what's her next likely target?" William questions. The group pauses for a moment at this.

"…She doesn't know that the attempt on me and you failed." Ricca points out. "She's probably moved on to other possible targets."

"Stu?" Matthew inquires.

"I don't think so." Anna replies. "Stu and May aren't together. I think she'd spend her time on the hard ones first and save someone like Stu for when she's used up all of her best plans."

"…We're not talking about an evil genius here," William reminds them. "This is Karrie. A normal, if incredibly sweet and heart-stoppingly beautiful person. We can't even be sure if it really IS her doing this."

"Oh yes we can. Me and Anna." Ricca retorts, Anna nodding to this. "We're girls, we can sense betrayal…"

"Ph." Matthew sounds, accidentally spitting a bit on his book. Wiping it off, he continues. "Okay, so assuming that this is Karrie's doing, we can safely rule out all four of us, and Stu. That only leaves…"

"Kate and Lumina!" Anna says with a gasp. "We have to find them and warn them, before Karrie can…"

"…What can Karrie do again?" William inquires. "She isn't the most amazing villian ever. Not like Daachan or… me a few days ago."

"We shouldn't underestimate her." Ricca states, getting up from her chair and turning to the exit. "That's exactly how almost every bad thing that's happened to us started…"

-

In the cozy confines of Doug's Inn, a pair of Forget-Me-Not Valleyers occupied one of the otherwise near-empty tables, enjoying small talk and sipping on their pineapple juice. These two, Kate and Lumina, seemed to be quite glad of this down-time, without other people around babbling constantly, or kicking their chair legs accidentally, or asking annoying questions. This was a nice time to have a good, simple conversation with someone that one has known for a long time.

"You know, this is a pretty good spot." Kate comments, glancing around once at the place. "The Inner would really do well if it had a bit of an expansion and a big dining room."

"Yes," Lumina agrees, nodding. "Too bad that Tim and Ruby wouldn't like it. They really enjoy the traditional look of the Inn."

"…Yeah, the vases and ugly masks and things…" Kate trails off, nodding a bit. "Though it would still bring up business if there was at least more than one room open at any time…"

"That's true…" Lumina agrees. She takes a long sip of her pineapple juice and wipes her mouth off with a napkin before proceeding with a question. "…So, when did you and Miro get together?"

"Hm?" Kate returns. She had heard her clearly, but it was natural for the person being asked pretending not to have heard, and then a second later miraculously realizing what was being asked. "Oh… Well, what do you mean?"

"You two didn't really seem to like one another before you left the Valley." Lumina states. "When I saw you after, though, when we were going through the forest and Miro was telling the story, and you ran in between us, I noticed how protective you were… So, you must have gotten together before then, right?"

"…Well, yeah…" Kate replies, nodding a bit. "Well, let's see… I always did have this itchy feeling that he was more than just somebody to kick around, ever since a couple… maybe three years ago. I know we officially got together sometime over the trip, but I can't really pinpoint… Oh, wait, there was that kiss that lasted a few days…"

"A… a few days?" Lumina echoes, looking at Kate incredulously. "Kate, that is a very, very big landmark… When did this happen?"

"Umm, a couple of days or so after Miro left…" Kate replies, looking a little awkward. "And, well, we found out we had split personalities after that… Um, apparently our inner selves got out, because of the kiss, and we were acting strange for a while until Miro was slapped by a fish and got me angry, which put us back to normal…"

"Oh, my…" Lumina says, unsure of what exactly to say to this. "How… romantic…"

"Yeah…" Kate says, chuckling a bit and sipping her juice before clearing her throat to continue. "So what about you and Hugh? Have you kissed or anything yet?"

"Kissed?" Lumina repeats, feigning that she hadn't quite heard just like Kate did. "Well… Yes. A few times, on the bus…"

"Ah, and I noticed that window was steaming up…" Kate states observantly. "…And, umm, how was it?"

"Oh, it was wonderful!" Lumina replies, a look of great giddiness on her face. "You would never expect him to be such a talent at it! Maybe he practices on things like pillows…"

"Did you return at all?" Kate inquires.

"…What do you mean?" Lumina inquires to the inquiry.

"…Lumina! You didn't just sit there and let him go, did you? You've gotta give as good as you get!" Kate states, giving her a shocked look. "We're not romantic knobs, here, we're Valley girls! They need to know who they're messing with!"

"…Oh, umm…" Lumina mutters, seeming to think for a moment. "Well, I… I gave… about as good as I got. I don't know, he was very nice. Even a little shy about it at first."

"Really?" Kate inquires, looking at her now with some interest. Then, a thought came to her. If Lumina could find her way into the soft side of Hugh, one of the most one-dimensional people she has ever encountered, then maybe, someday soon…

"Lumina… Are you planning on marrying him?" The question came out in a quiet gasp of awe, as Kate leaned slightly over the table and gave Lumina a transfixed, fascinated look.

"…Um…" Lumina mumbles, looking down for a moment before deciding to answer. "I… I th… Yes, I think so."

Kate gasped, the natural stimulation given by most females from hearing the echoes of wedding bells in the future overcoming her usual self for the moment. A delighted smile came upon her face and she put her hands to her mouth, giggling.

"Oh, wow, this is so great!" she states, standing up and nearly knocking over her chair. "And you two are the right age and everything! Well, Hugh's nineteen but that's really close! And you're, umm, probably old enough to cover for both of you, so yeah!"

"Umm, yes…" Lumina mutters, deciding to stray away from stating her real age if it could be avoided. "But Hugh hasn't proposed or anything, of course, so…"

"Oh, of course, you can't expect him to right away," Kate agrees, getting back to her seat. "but you two are older than the rest of us, so we can expect you two to tie the knot before us."

"Do you plan on marrying Miro?" Lumina inquires.

"Well…" Kate begins, thinking for a moment. "Seeing as we're chemically alike and very attached to each other… I mean, it's much too early to talk about things like that, but since he's one of the only people I've grown up with…"

Just then, the door to the Inn opened, and the shining hair and trim constitution of Karrie slunk her way into the room, immediately spotting the two and grinning to them.

"Kate and Lumina!" she greets, walking up to them cheerily and taking a seat. "We haven't been able to talk yet, have we?"

"…Since when did you know our names?" Kate asks, attempting not to sound rude but her success being in serious question.

"Oh, Miro and Hugh mentioned you… at least twice." Karrie recalls, remembering the instances after a short pause. "But anyway, how are you two feeling? All of that walking and adventuring around must have made you really sore. Are your feet okay?"

"They're fine," Kate replies a little sharply. "And no, I don't care for that lotion stored in your left-front pocket."

"Aw." Karrie says, a tad put-out. "What about you, Lumina?"

"I… I'm fine, thank you." Lumina states simply.

"Hmm…" Karrie pauses, thinking for a quick moment before apparently remembering something. "Oh, and I've been meaning to ask you two something…"

"You have?" Kate questions, Lumina also looking a bit curious.

"Yes." Karrie replies. "…You two are very pretty, and really nice-looking for country girls. But, well, have you ever wanted to look just a little better?"

"What do you mean?" Lumina asks, blinking once.

"I mean, you have very good qualities but you don't really show them." Karrie states. "Lumina, you're slim and built to be a very good runway model, and Kate, your freckles go very well with your face, and you have some of the fullest hair I've seen. All you two need is a couple of things and you can look just beautiful."

"You don't say…" Kate mutters, looking very uninterested and taking a sip of her juice absently.

"Yes!" Karrie proclaims, looking more excited now. "Lumina, if you wore a thinner dress and made it a single color, like brown which would go great with your eyes, it would show off your curves so much better! And Kate, if you wore something red with something on the back that would let your hair be seen, and curl it at about the last quarter-"

"I'd look like a freckled Muffy." Kate interrupts, still looking uninterested. "Thanks but no thanks."

"Muffy? That horridly over-applying blonde woman? Dear, no!" Karrie states, looking distasteful at the thought. "Your face and body would make it look like something completely different! Not to mention, your hair isn't nearly as light as hers."

"Yes, having a light head isn't the best of things." Kate mutters, taking note of Karrie's hair colour.

"But there's one thing that you two need before any of that happens." Karrie continues, giving both an uncomfortably thorough look. "You need about… oh, not even five taken off…"

"Five what?" Lumina inquires.

"Pounds." Karrie replies. "You two have great waistlines, but they would look just perfect if we could get the nice, hourglass frame working for you."

Kate gives her a look.

"I said I'm fine." she states concisely. "The people I care at all about don't give a crap how I look."

"I've… never had any complaints…" Lumina states, glancing down for just a moment at herself.

"Of course!" Karrie replies, undeterred. "Why would they? You two look great just as you are, you don't ever have to change! But imagine how surprised they'll be if they see you one day all well-dressed and showing your real self to the world!"

"And you think that somebody else's vision of what I _should_ look like is my real self?" Kate returns, narrowing her eyes but mocking interest. "Interesting…"

Karrie pauses for a moment at this. With the view on personal fashion and self-respect that Kate had, Karrie was beginning to wonder about her lifestyle and choices, her opinion of herself, her hidden insecurities and… meh, oh well. C'est la vis. Proceeding with her plan, Karrie takes out two glasses from apparently nowhere, full of what seemed to be chocolate milk. Smiling, she places them in front of the two girls.

"Give these a try." She offers, still smiling. Kate looks at the one given to her with some apprehension.

"…What are they?" she asks, looking to Karrie suspiciously.

"Just something I drink." Karrie replies, giving a little shrug. "I really like it, so I thought you might as well."

"…It just looks like chocolate milk." Lumina states, putting a spoon in the liquid and stirring curiously. "Is that all it is?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Karrie replies, smiling a bit more. "It's only a drink, don't worry. Go on, give it a try."

At that very moment, the door to the Inn is slammed open, with four teens charging in immediately after. After glancing around for a moment, they spot their two friends and Karrie, immediately stunning the two guys. The girls, however, run to them determinedly.

"Wait! Stop!" Anna says, as Kate and Lumina had their glass raised in front of themselves.

"What is it, Anna?" Lumina asks.

"Don't worry, it's just a drink." Kate reassures them.

"My left eye it's just a drink!" Ricca returns, giving Karrie a look, who only smiled back. "Quit that! Don't think I don't know you, Karrie! And don't think I don't know that you tried to set up me and William!"

"I did what?" Karrie asks in her light voice, blinking in apparent confusion. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you're greedy and not nice!" Anna states huffily. "Now what did you put in those drinks?"

"I didn't put anything…" Karrie begins. "I just wanted them to try it…"

"Oh?" Ricca inquires, noticing something within her pocket and quickly reaching in at it (William all-out fainted at this). With equal speed, she pulls it out and examines it. It was a torn paper packet of some sort, which obviously once contained some kind of powder. Reading the label, Ricca gasps and immediately glares at Karrie.

"Slim-Quick!" she states, throwing the packet away in disgust. "You conniving tart! Even I didn't think you would sink so low!"

"Kate, Lumina, don't drink that!" Anna warns them. "If you do, your self-esteem will be killed instantly! You'll count calories and wear bad makeup because it 'exfoliates'!"

"And nobody on this planet knows what the hell that means!" Ricca adds. "And you'll keep breaking out in horribly annoying fits of giggles and start dressing like those Ragnarok Online skanks!"

"…What?" Anna asks, puzzled.

"…The beach house has dial-up." Ricca explains. "Anyway, don't drink it! Throw it away!"

Kate chuckles, having finally been given an excuse to discard the drink, and places it back on the table, pushing it far away. Lumina does the same, however a bit more gently so as not to spill.

Karrie sees this and, tilting her head and letting out an "Aww…" of disappointment, sighing. She then turns to Matthew and a recently-conscious William.

"Mattie? Willie?" she asks sweetly, to their vauge nods of recognition. Karrie then speaks with her same sweatness. "Destroy them."

"Okay." William and Matthew say, nodding dumbly as they approach the other four girls with a tetermined gleam in their eyes. Just before they could strike (and likely get their heads stomped in) however, a voice called in protest.

"Hey! I don't want any climactic battling in here!" Doug calls from his bar table. "Just go outside and play nice, you seven!"

To the varied mumblings of the group, they grudgingly agree, trodding out the door and making it to the pathway before the pounding of William and Matthew commenced.

-

The residents of the bubbling, warm Hot Spring were still comfortably lazing within its bubbly liquid, the pent-up anger from William's incident having drifted away from Cliff and Elli ever since it was explained as a simple misunderstanding. They even felt a little sorry for yanking at his earlobes so hard before any explaination could be made.

"Ah…" Nami sighs, getting her head slowly up from the rock and opening her eyes. She looks to Jack. "I feel much better now. Thanks again."

"Eh, it was nothing." Jack replies. "I know you'd do the same for me. You did that one time about 16 years off. Seven months pregnant and you could still march into that Bar, kick the chair out from under me and haul me out to Hardy's place for alcohol poisoning treatment after Griffin mixed up the Moomoo Milk with that really, really big shot bottle."

"I've always wondered how you never noticed, either…" Nami points out. "Then again, you had that incident with the belt sander a few days before that, so your taste buds might have still not grown back at the time…"

"That was it." Jack states. "I remember because it was the month before you had Miro that things stopped tasting like sandpaper."

Just then, an excited Kai runs up the parh leading to the Hot Spring, followed by an equally-excited, cap-wearing Jack. They both stopped in front of the group, grinning delightedly.

"We caught a bass!" Kai proclaims, unslinging the guitar from his back and showing it to the group.

"We caught a fish, too!" Jack adds, his cap askew on his head.

"Really?" Elli asks, looking interested. "Is that what you're so excited about?"

"We think it's a new record!" Kai states. "It's a Huchep. You you know the record for them?"

"Umm… No. But how many inches is this fish?" Mary inquires.

"Err… Jack, what did it measure at?" Kai asks.

"Umm, inches?" Jack replies.

"Yeah." Kai says.

"Let's see…" Jack mutters, pausing to recount it. "About… Five hundred and sixty four."

Everyone in the pool either gasped, coughed, or choked at this proclaimation. Gray was the first to speak out.

"F… Fourty-seven feet!" he splutters, staring shocked at the two.

"About that, yeah." Jack replies, nodding a bit.

"Had a hell of a time trying to get it in the cooler." Kai adds. "We had to just leave it on the beach."

"But don't worry, Ann has a huge bottle of preservatives that she's saved for just such an occasion." Jack assures them.

"W… wait, how the heck did you catch something like that?" Cliff asks. The others look to the two expectantly.

"Umm, well…" Kai begins.

"It's… a fairly typical fish story." Jack proceeds. "You know… Just finished the farming rounds, decided to go to Kai's, we decide to cruise on the boat, brought some fishing stuff, get out about half a kilometer into the water, we drop anchor, the rope gets caught around Kai's foot, he falls into the water, fish comes along, fish swallows Kai, dies, floats to the surface, I pull them in, jump on the fish until it spits him out, and the rest is history."

"…Fairly typical." Kai says in agreement. "So, umm, Jack technically caught the fish, but I get credit as bait."

After the expected pause of dumb looks,the Jack in the pool is the one to speak out.

"…That… is TOO cool!" he shouts, standing up in the water and looking to them with excitedly shining eyes. This, however, revealled the reason he didn't want to put more than his head out of the water. For lack of any posible way that this can be stated in a generously fancy way, he was wearing the two-piece bathing suit that Nami had just barely failed to make him wear when the journey to find their child began. Unfortunately, she had also told him to bring it along, just in case…

"…Speaking of cool, mind the draft, Jack." Kai reminds him. Jack, again remembering what he was wearing, "Eek!"ed once and sunk into the water again.

"Maybe we should have a little festival." Nami suggests, looking at Kai and the non-submerged Jack. "It'll probably take the whole town's efforts to eat the thing, anyway."

"Hey, that's a good idea!" Kai proclaims. "But… what should we call it?"

"The Scurvy Festival?" Cliff suggests.

"Eh, sounds a little too formal." The hatted Jack states. "How about just the… Big Fish Festival?"

"That sounds good." Elli agrees, nodding.

"Okay!" Kai says. "C'mon, Jack, let's find Mayor Thomas!"

With that, the two of them run off, eager to share their good news with Mayor Thomas and the rest of the town.

-

"…Three!" Miro and Hugh yell at once, after a rediculously long pause. During this, Hugh had managed to get to the other side of Bry, so Miro and him had both routes of the path covered.

Miro was the first to get to Bry, and aimed a few well-dodged blows at him before Bry grabbed one of his arms, forced it to Miro's chest and used his other hand to grab Miro by the throat. This is where Hugh came in, aiming a kick to Bry's back. However, Bry knew what he was going to do and jumped, wrapping his legs around Hugh's own while still keeping his grip on Miro. Then, with a forceful twist of his body, he forced the two of them to fall to the ground, along with himself. However, he landed in an easier way, quickly getting up again. Miro and Hugh also get up, and then back up to surround him once more.

"Hugh, he can't get us both at once!" Miro states. "Let's go at him, at the EXACT same time!"

"Right!" Hugh replies. With that, they both run at him and prepare to strike out, but Bry halts them by leaping into the air and sticking his legs out in the splits, planting his feet on both of their chests. After vain attempts to reach out and grab at the boy, Miro decides to step back so that he loses his footing. However, as though Bry knew ahead of time what he was planning, he kicked off of Miro and planted both of his feet on Hugh's shoulders, standing on them and facing Miro. Miro attempted to run at him whilst Hugh tried to grab him, but Bry quicky crouched, slid his feet down to Hugh's back, and kicked off from him. This caused Hugh to collide into Miro and both to hold their faces in pain after they had done so. Bry, being Bry, had casually landed on his feet, but not without the required stylish backflip.

"Oww… Damn… You nasty, evil little MONKEY!" Hugh spits.

"I swear, this time we'll get you…" Miro mutters behind his hands, which still covered his face.

For a change, Bry ran in between them. Finding this a good opportunity to strike, both Miro and Hugh take a swing at his head level. Unfortunately, his head level was quite the same as theirs, and when he ducked to dodge them, they wound up punching one another in the face. Much more painful for Miro than for Hugh, but both reeled for a moment and squinted their eyes. Bry popped up before them again and, as they were busy feeling under their noses for blood, he grabbed both by the back of the head and slammed them into one another again. When Miro and Hugh stumbled backward, they didn't bother check their noses again. They could take a good guess as to whether or not there was blood.

"…Okay, you know what?" Miro states, his voice sounding plugged. "You are… _really_ annoying…"

"And a lot better than either of you." Bry states smugly. "Lookit you both. Even together, you can't land a thing on me. I was born to be free, and not a force in this world can stop me!"

-

"…Hey, Patrick, give this a look, will ya?" the creepily identical Kassey requests, carefully inspecting a completed firework he was just finished. Patrick grunts and stands up, walking around the hole in the middle of their water-tower home and takes the device carefully from him, giving it a good look-over.

"Something about it?" he asks. "Seems fine to me. What do you have packed in it?"

"Few grams of this, few grams of that." Kassey states, shrugging a bit. "The mixture, though, I don't think it'll react right. Doubt it'll explode."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I tested one like this a months ago. It just fizzed in the air and died." Kassey says. "Though, I did tweak this one a bit. What do you think?"

"Let's give it a try." Patrick replies. "Sometimes there's only one way to find out."

"True." Kassey agrees. "Okay, open the hatch."

"Opening the hatch…" Patrick mutters, turning a random crank on the wall and raising an entire section of the water tower's side fully open.

"Ready the stand."

"Readying the stand." Patrick echoes boredly, finding a metal holder for the firework and placing it next to the open section of wall, also placing the firework carefully upon it.

"Light the fuse." Kassey concludes.

"Lighting the fuse." Patrick replies, taking a match from his trouser pocket and striking it against his own forehead to light it. Placing it at the base of the firework, the fuse soon hisses and sparks in anticipation to go off.

"Stand back."

"Standing back."

After a short moment, the firework shoots off into the air, quickly clearing several hundred feet in height before… heading downward again. A strong crosswind had blown it far from the two pyrotechnicians however, and it seemed to be heading into a distant area of the forest…

-

Hugh and Miro prepare themselves to continue their combat with Bry, whom was facing them and getting into a ready stance as well.

"Come on, let's finish this…" Bry states, smirking readily.

"You got it." Hugh growls.

"This is it, no more pausing." Miro says. "Only One of us is walking out of this bout, and it's going to be me."

"…You?" Hugh repeats, giving Miro a sideways glance.

"…Well, we have to be logical." Miro states. "I mean, one of us is probably going down in the fight."

Hugh mutters and looks to Bry again, but, before any of them could make a move, a firework came down from the heavens and landed right before Bry's feet. The three of them pause for a moment, and then slowly look down at the fizzling object…

-

The explosion was impressive, even by firework standards, Kassey noted as he tried to guess the radius of smoke and debris from that distance. His compound worked pretty well…

"Just looks like the internal fuse is delayed a bit." Patrick states ovservantly. "Good mixture, though. We gotta remember to keep that."

Kassey nodded and, with a certain haste so as to not get curious people to come and ask what that loud bang was, the two of them quickly wound the crank down again to re-enclose their water tower home.

- - -

An uncertain amount of time later, in an uncertain location, a red-haired teen awoke from what seemed to be a concussion-induced coma. He wasn't quite sure of his name or identity yet, but a majority of his senses had been returned to him. Sunlight brushed against his face from behind the leaves of trees… A thought suddenly sprung to his mind, but, with a quick sweep of his hand, he was relieved to find that he was, in fact, male. He was relieved because being female just seemed too all-around hard. Blinking a few times, he sat up to take a look at his surroundings. Forest. Path. Jock. It seemed like normal surroundings scattered about his view…

Miro! That was it! Sort of like that guy from that show! But what was he doing around here…?

Several minutes passed, and as his momeories continued to collect themselves, he became more and more disappointed… Jee, with this new look on how his life turned out, he had an excellent view on how much it really stank. A moment later, the lump of humanity that was the jock that was Hugh that Miro had remembered was Hugh about a minute and a half before began to stir, grumbling and muttering incoherently.

"Ugh… M… Miro… You there…?" Hugh breathes out, finally something that could be understood.

"Yep…" Miro mutters, though the many bruises and burn-ey feelings he felt made him wish somewhat that he wasn't.

"…Are we dead?" Hugh continues.

"Nope."

"God dammit…" Hugh mutters angrily. "We really have to stop almost dying and just come to a damn decision…"

"…Do you see Bry?" Miro asks, once Hugh had pulled his face from the pathway.

"Who?" Hugh questions.

"Bry." Miro repeats.

"…Who? I can't hear you over the ringing…" Hugh inquires again.

"Bry!" Miro shouts with all of the energy given to him.

"…Oh yeah! Uhh…" Hugh begins, taking a look around. He suddenly spotted a speck of blonde in a nearby bush. "Hey, over there!"

"…He was on the other side," Miro points out, referring to the firework. "He should've been blown the other way, shouldn't he?"

"I think… I remember seeing him being slung from a tree before the concussion knocked me out…" Hugh recalls. "Oh well. Let's scrape him out of that bush and drag him along while he's out."

"Okay." Miro agrees. And so they did, and since Bry had taken the worst of the blast, he was completely out without a sign of stirring for at least that lifetime. However, he was breathing, which is always good. Hugh and Miro each carried him by a shoulder and with much haste (or as much haste as their incredibly sore bodies could manage), they began down the pathway once again.

(And I'm ending the chapter there! I was gonna add more, but once again the length has startled me. I'm sensing only anout three more Chapters to go, so don't fret if you're paitently waiting for me to finally shut up...ehehheh... Oh, remember to review! And if anyone recognizes the big fish incident as a part from an episode of The Red Green Show, you already might be able to guess upon how it'll all turn out. Well, you're right, but keep quiet about it! We don't want the others to know, it'll spoil it!

…Oh, and I don't own Tales of Symphonia! Or Ragnarok Online! Or anything else! ANYTHING!)


	42. The Really Very Cool Part I Like

(I forgot a couple of things… I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or Disney, or Final Fantasy, or The Red Green Show, Or Hollywood- NONE of that! I also don't own any other brand name you might find, or see, or have implied! Are we clear? Everyone? You over there, you clear with me, too? Okay, good… On with the show!)

"Are you sorry?"

"Yes…"

"How about you?"

"Yesss…"

"How sorry?"

"Very, very sorry…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now _stop twisting_…"

Ricca and Anna nod to one another, letting go of their respective guy's arms and allowing them to fall to the ground, tightly tied up by some old rope they had found around the corner of the Inn. With a dark gleam, they then look up at Karrie.

"Ready for yours now, girly?" Ricca inquires, ten years of hidden jealousy apparently chewing at the bit to be unleashed in the supreme wrath that was herself.

"Wh… but… Oh, I don't want to…" Karrie whines, looking down to the ground. "I want to be friends if I can't trick you all into hating each other. Can't we be friends?"

"There are way too many Miss Perfects out there who don't get what's coming to them! If I can get my hands on just one of you, and I think it will be you, I'll make it enough of an impact for all the rest of them to feel!" Ricca returns, taking a couple of steps toward Karrie. Karrie attempts to step back, but Ricca makes it to her before she could get away.

Grabbing her by the shoulder, Ricca takes one of her hands, holds it up to eye level, and personally bites into one of Karrie's meduim-long and meticulously-manicured nails, snapping off its tip and spitting it aside.

"Broken nail," she states, then taking a pair of small siccors from her pants pocket and, with a swift motion, using it to lop off three inches of a section of Karrie's hair.

"Bangs uneven. And eyeliner…" she continues,dabbing a finger on her tongue and wiping it swiftly under Karrie's left eye. "…smeared."

Letting go, Ricca steps back, looking hard at Karrie for her reaction. Karrie seemed vague, distant, until suddenly she fell to her knees and went into a desparate fit of drama-queen sobbing.

"Wow, way to put the ultimate shame on her, Ricca." Kate states, smirking a bit. Lumina nods a bit in the background, but seems slightly concerned. "I bet she'll never get over thi-"

"Festival in Town Square! The new Big Fish Festival! Everyone to Town Square!" Harris choruses, running by the group of them and ringing a random bell. After he had passed, the girls blink.

"So, he's out of the Forest…" Anna says plainly. "I guess he decided that the Forest was too lonely for even him…"

"Or too dangerous." William states from the ground. "I gave him one harsh poke in the eye back when I was bishounnen."

"Eh, you're still bishounnen." Ricca assures him, beginning to lift him up by the ropes that had his wrists tied. "Let's get to the festival, guys."

"Ooh, a festival!" chimes Karrie, who had apparently just gotten over her deep depression. She jumps up and begins to skip alongside the rest of the group as they walked (or were dragged) along. "Festivals always get me so excited! I wonder what this one will be like…"

- - -

A few minutes later, in Town Square, the whole of Mineral Town, and the visitors from Forget-Me-Not Valley, were assembled in a crowd before one of the largest common fish ever seen by human eyes. The two Jacks and Kai stood on a podium in front of the giant, dead fish and wave at the applause of the crowd and such. Mayor Thomas also stood there, and cleared his throat to make his hastily-written speech.

"Well, on this glorious Mineral Town day I am glad to present to you what I have recently found out is the largest Huchep ever to be caught!" he exclaims, to continued applause. "This day, Mineral Town shall be put on the map as the home of this magnificent, dead fish and the heroes who caught it!"

Shoving Thomas over politely, Kai stands before the crowd. "Now, who's ready for a fish fry?" he shouts. The people cheer, enthused.

"That is a big… big Huchep…" Muffy mutters within the crowd. She was a fan of that kind of fish, and was raring to sink her fangs into its tender hide. Celia gives her a sideways glance, and shuffles a half-step from her just to be perfectly safe.

"I will, however, give my dearest cousin the honor of first cutting this fish!" the hatted Jack proclaims, having asided Kai from the front of the podium. Picking up the not-until-recently ceremonial chainsaw, Jack hands it proudly to his non-hatted cousin, who takes it with a bow. Proceeding toward the fish, he puta a hand to the chainsaw's pull-cord in anticipation.

"…Wait a second, Jack!" Nami suddenly calls from the crowd, stepping out of it slightly. "That fish is a Huchep, right?"

"…Umm, yeah." Kai mutters.

"Huchep are river fish. What was it doing in the ocean?" Nami pursues. Several people in the crowd seem to give this a moment of thought.

"…Oh, of course!" the Jack currently holding the chainsaw chuckles, turning to face the crowd and leaning against the gigantic fish. "Well, you see, while you were, umm… out, Nami, I spent a little bit of the morning down by the beach. I saw I had a Huchep in my pack, so I thought maybe I could try something with it. And get this, I found this, um, propane tank, I guess it was just full of air because it was just lying there on the dock, and so I thought I could try seeing how big I could inflate the fish. So I stuck its mouth in the nozzle-thing, and I turned that handle, and it started getting bigger! And when it got WHOA huge I had to push it off the dock with that thing still in its mouth, but I thought it would pop at some point… But nope, I guess not, 'cause here it is now! Oh well."

As he turned around and faced the fish, chainsaw pulled, revved-up and at the ready, the collective eyeballs of the town widened enormously. Anna, Ricca, Lumina, Kate, Matthew, and William all state a sentence of disbelief, word-by-word.

"No…"

"One…"

"Could…"

"Be…"

"That…"

"Stupid…"

Nami, with a sigh, turns toward the six, and the crowd in general and spoke in an ominous, cautionary tone to them. "Never… overestimate… my husband…"

With his always astonishingly-unforeseeing mind too fixed on his honorary duty to realize what a catastrophic mistake he was about to make, Jack revs the chainsaw up and eagerly drives it into the giant, inflated fish.

Spark.

-

"Say, Miro…" Hugh begins, looking to him from over the limp head of the still-unconscious Bry they were currently lugging along. "…what if this guy doesn't wake up? Like, if he's in a coma or something…"

"Well, that's not really our problem." Miro replies, shrugging with his free shoulder. "We were just told to bring him along with us, and we're lucky to be able to do that."

"Yeah, you've got a point there." Hugh states, snorting defiantly once. "If they don't like the condition he's in when we bring him back, they can complain to my…"

Hugh trails off, hearing a strange sound in front of them. Miro hears it as well. It was a kind of… wooshing sort of noise, like a very uniform, strong gust of wind. They then notice the trees in front of them swaying in their direction, and the air warping in a large wall before them, about to meet them in moments. When those moments had passed, both Hugh and Miro are knocked off of their feet from the concussive shockwave, landing on their backs a few feet from where they were hit. Once it had passed over them, they slowly get themselves up, collecting Bry again as they did so.

"Ugh… Your Dad is cooking…" Hugh states, wincing as he touched the re-disturbed bruise on his back. Miro nods a bit to this.

"Well… If it was him, I think he just beat his record." He replies.

"For what?"

"Blast raduis."

"Oh…"

-

Jack stood there, his clothes burnt and tattered, his hair pointing uniformly backwards, his face full of fish, and with nothing left of the chainsaw but the handle he was holding and two links of chain currently stuck in his teeth. He turns, slowly, to the crowd before him, to see that they, too, were burnt and covered with fish. Indeed, fish was still raining from the heavens, further coating the slightly-blackened buildings, and although Muffy's silence seemed to be one of awe and joy of this miraculous occasion, the rest of the mass seemed just a little… upset.

Kai, the other Jack, and Mayor Thomas, having been knocked clear off of the podium, were slowly getting up again, also looking none-too-happy. Nami, who was still in front of the crowd, slowly reached her hand up and flicked a piece of fish from her brow before turning her head to look at the people behind her. Just as she expected, they were simmering, and the only thing that kept them from charging at this point was the brief period of aftershock. Sighing, Nami walks briskly to the podium and hops up on it, taking her husband's hand.

"Come on, Jack, time to skip town…" she states, beginning to pull him off quickly. At this point, the general population of the Town had stirred from their addle, and were at the ready for a nice, old fashioned stake-burning. Upon hearing the yelling mob behind him, Jack's motivation was greatly enhanced and his legs began moving without the aid of Nami's tugging. In a moment, they had leapt down from the platform and were headed due east. The mass of people behind them, which had, with three torches and two pitchforks between them, officially become an angry mob, chased after them as they retreated from the eastern exit and leapt from the stone stairway onto the beach. Nami paused, getting to her feet and looking around for some means of escape. In a moment, she had found it; the motorboat.

"Hurry," she says demandingly, heading toward the boat at a dead run. Jack follows behind, the crowd having poured from the stairway and were again in hot pursuit. Once she had made it to the dock, Nami ran a few steps up it and then leapt onto the boat. Jack ran up as well, and as Nami hastily cut the ropes loose with her trusted knives and got into the pilot's seat, Jack also jumped in, landing on his feet near the back of the machine.

"Nami, wait!" he calls, seeing Nami turn the boat on (Kai had left his key in it due to all of the fish excitement).

"No, Jack, we have no ti-"

"JUST LET ME DO THIS!" Jack shouts, unable to allow himself the waste of such an opportunity. The crowd, having collected on the beachhead and the dock, glares at him in frustration. Nami sighs, and nods, to Jack's upliftment. Turning to the large group before him, Jack stands in clear view on the back of the boat.

"You will all remember this…" he begins, a wry smile on his face as he looked triumphantly at the people standing there. "…as the day that you almost caught… Captain Jack-"

"Flooring it!" Nami interrupts, suddenly pushing the boat's throttle all the way forward. Jack shouts and stumbles, quite nearly falling over, but manages to keep himself on the boat.

The last that they see of them is a flicker of Nami's hair in the wind and the waving hand of Jack in the far distance after he had stopped whining about not being able to finish his line.

-

"What the…?" Hugh begins, blinking as they exit the forested area and spot Mineral Town ahead of them. "…What are we doing here already?"

"The firework, probably…" Miro states. "At least it saved us a lot of time, huh?"

"Yeah." Hugh agrees. "…So, I guess we should get this guy to the Inn."

After a few minutes of walking, they make it to the Inn doors, though the town seemed much more empty and… fishy than they remembered. Just before Miro could open the door, however, he felt their blonde-capped luggage begin to stir.

"…Uh oh." Hugh begins, him and Miro immediately letting Bry go. He falls to one knee, but stays up under his own power, head still bowed. "…Oh, great, he's up…"

"Get ready…" Miro warns, preparing himself for anything. Slowly, Bry gets to his feet, his eyes opening carefully. When he stood up fully, awake, he turned to Hugh, and then Miro.

"Right then… Time to take the two of you down for good…" he mutters, raising his hands to some fighting stance in preparation. Miro and Hugh clench their teeth, getting themselves extra-ready for the coming fight.

"That was so. Much. FUN!" a voice coming from the east exclaims, causing the group to turn to it inquisitively. There came Karrie, trailed (far, far away) by the rest of the teens. "When that big fish just blew up like a load of dynamite and then we chased the guy who did it and his wife all the way to the beach, it was just great!"

Miro and Hugh, naturally – and even with Karrie's clothes a bit messed up and hair fairly frizzy – went into a daze at her very sight. Bry, however, suddenly runs toward her and slows to a walk when he was near, looking at her curiously. Karrie stops as well, giving him a quizzical look. Bry began to circle her, Karrie following suit shortly after. He sniffs the air and pauses.

"…You smell like fish and… girl…" he states, tilting his head slightly.

"Well, I am." Karrie replies with a smile. "…Not a fish, but a girl. You're a little funny. What is your name?"

"Bry…" Bry says to her, looking as though he was confused by something. "Am I funny? I'm not funny much, but… you make me feel funny. Something in my chest…"

"I do?" Karrie questions. "Well, I'm gonna be a model soon. I'll be touring a whole bunch of places, all over the world. So-"

"All over… the world…?" Bry echoes, his eyes widening a bit. "I… I want to go all over the world. I spent most of my life in one room, and… I want to see what I haven't seen yet, which is a lot…"

"Well…" Karrie begins with another smile. "Maybe I can arrange something. You seem like a nice boy, maybe you can come along with me… I mean, you're the first boy that's been really direct with me since I got here. You talk and listen a lot more, the others just like to nod and grunt… You know, you make me feel funny, too."

Bry pauses for a moment, and then, in a sudden change in attitude, the two of them blush heavily. Karrie takes Bry by the hand quickly and the two of them, passing Hugh and Miro without a glance, walk down the road in a silence that didn't need words. They then turn at the corner and walk northward, maybe to Karen's old house, maybe to the bench, who knows…

"…That kid is gonna hit first base with A FEW FRIGGIN' WORDS!" Hugh snaps, glaring at the general world around him. The other teens walk toward the two, Matthew and William now free from their bonds.

"Don't be upset, Hugh." Lumina says, putting a hand on his arm assuringly.

"But it took so long for me to get your attention…" he mutters, slumping his shoulders disappointedly.

"But you can say you've earned it." Lumina reminds him.

"…Yeah. Yeah, I didn't wimp out. He would've wimped out if that Karrie girl wasn't so loose." Hugh states, smiling a bit.

"Glad you agree." Ricca says. "Now come on, let's catch up inside the Inn."

A few minutes later, they enter the Inn and, pulling a couple of tables together, take their seats and order up some Pineapple Juice from the still-grumbling Doug.

"So, umm…" Miro begins. "…Why is it that Doug's upset and everyone has fish on them?"

"Oh. Well…" Kate begins, unsure of how to begin the story. "…You know that time that your Dad stuck the electric knife in Wally's medicine ball?"

"Yeah…" Miro replies, nodding a bit. "It poofed like a turkey with a firecracker in it…"

"And it was my favorite one, too…" Hugh mutters.

"Yeah," Kate begins. "Well, think of that, times a thousand."

"The knob stuck a chainsaw in a fish full of propane…" Ricca hisses, her hair, like most others', still askew. "The blast fried us, tipped all of the cows and plucked all of the chickens…"

"The sheep could absorb the impact since they're due in for a shearing." Matthew adds. "They look very odd-shaped at the moment, though…"

"Hm… So, where are Mom and Dad now?" Miro inquires, glancing around a bit.

"Well…" Kate begins. "We, I mean the town, chased after them for a bit and… well, they got away."

"They jacked Kai's boat and drove right off." William states. Miro blinks once and then sighs.

"Well, at least I get to be independant again." He points out.

"…Do you think we should go after them?" Anna inquires.

"Naah, they're adults, they can handle themselves." Miro replies, shrugging.

"…Well, look at that…" Matthew mutters, looking to another table a distance from theirs. The others turn and see Stu, sitting alone with a small lunch, with a piece of fish on his forehead like many of the town's inhabitants. He was focusing his attention on another table, which, as the group turned their heads to spot, housed May. She didn't have any fish on her, as she had only recently left the Clinic shortly after the explosion, and she sported a white cast on one of her arms.

"…So?" Miro inquires.

"It looks like Stu's finally almost ready to ask her." William states.

"We've been waiting for this moment for years…" Matthew adds.

"Why hasn't he asked her by now?" Kate inquires. "He looks older than us…"

"He's nineteen." Ricca says, taking a sip of the juice recently brought to them. "And he hasn't asked her yet pretty much because he's… shy about it."

"Shy about it? Somebody with that kinda build?" Hugh scoffs, suddenly rising up from the table. "I think I can fix that right up."

"Hugh, what are you…" Lumina begins, trailing off as Hugh walks over to Stu's table, stopping once he was there.

"Yo," Hugh begins, waving a little at him.

"Uh, yo…" Stu replies, looking at Hugh strangely. Hugh sits down on a chair opposite his without even asking.

"Hey, finally, some guy with meat hooks as impressive as mine!" Hugh proclaims, noticing that Stu's build was something like his own. "You want to try an arm wrestle?"

"…Yeah, sure, okay." Stu agrees, clearing his throat and putting his elbow down on the table. Hugh does the same and, without a countdown, the two begin the contest. At first, the two seem equally matched.

"Hah… So, hey, that girl there…" Hugh begins, nodding his head in her direction for a moment toward her while they battled for the upper hand. "…you got an eye for her?"

"…Rgh… What do you care…?" Stu replies, sounding a little defensive behind his timidness.

"Name's Hugh…" Hugh states. "And I care because I spent years trying to get a girl, and it worked. You, from what I've heard on the grapevine, haven't even tried once yet. As a fellow ambassator to jockkind, I'm proud to be the one to tell you to strap a pair on and ask her already!"

"…Well, I was _going to…_" Stu grunts as he begins to push Hugh's arm a bit back. "…Stu, by the way."

"Yeah, I'm _sure…_" Hugh counter-grunts, returning their arms to a neutral position. "When you were walking here, you told yourself you'd ask her after sitting down. And when you were sitting down, you told yourself you'd ask her when she's getting up to leave. And when she does get up to leave, you're gonna say to yourself 'eh, maybe tomorrow instead. Yeah, tomorrow's better', won't you?"

"That's… not the problem…" Stu states, attempting to recover since Hugh had pushed his arm down slightly. "The trouble is, our friendship is ruined if _she says no…!_"

"And why would she do that, you think?" Hugh pushes, keeping his position of being on top of the match.

"Well maybe I think I'm just not impressive enough…" Stu mutters, holding his ground with what he had.

"Heh, you know, I thought just like that once before…" Hugh recollects, smirking a little. "You want a useful tip? Find yourself a demonically-powered toy, use it to bring the girl you've got your eyes on to a certain spot, and try to kill your competition for her love right in front of your eyes! Trust me, it's win-win either way!"

"Yeah? Well, that'd work, _but…_" Stu grunts, forcing their arms back into the middle once more. "…I don't really have any competition for her. I'm the only one in town that's her age…"

"…Wh… THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SO SCARED ABOUT?" Hugh shouts, giving him a strange look. "If there's nobody else, then there's no WAY that she should say no!"

"Y… yeah, sure there is…" Stu mutters defensively, beginning to lose some ground in the match again.

"The only way _you _wouldn't be her selection is if she thinks you're a pansy," Hugh states, being sure to emphasize the last word. Stu gives him a dark look, his teeth chenching quite hard.

"I… am… not… a… **PANSY!**" he spits, suddenly slamming Hugh's arm down on the table with force. Without another word, Stu rises up from the table and walks around, his eyes and mind fixed now on one thing and one thing only.

Hugh smirks, looking triumphant, and turns to watch what Stu was going to do. His arm was pretty sore, and the table was hardwood so he might or might not have broken a knuckle just now, but it was a small sacrifice to allow one fellow strong-guy the bravado to complete one of the great missions of his lifetime.

With all haste, Stu stamped up to May's table, pulling a chair next to hers, sitting down, and looking at her determinedly.

"…Hello, Stu." May says simply, smiling a little oddly. "…What brings you to this table…?"

"May, when you were… when that bull hit you, I should have been there," he begins, shaking a bit and glancing once to her cast. "I mean, at least I should have been around to bring you to the Clinic, but I, I wasn't…"

"…Oh, it's okay." May reassures him. "I mean, it wasn't very late in the afternoon yet. You're usually out hiking in Mother's Hill by then-"

"But don't you see?" Stu begins, looking at her desparately. "I should have been there! I should be there all the time… I…"

He falters, trying to steady his breathing somewhat. May looks at him strangely, expectantly. After a moment, Stu takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes tightly in focus.

"May, I'm pretty much sure that I'm in love with you!" he spits out. A silence follows this statement. Stu opens his eyes slowly, expecting to see May frowning, looking offended or shocked. She did look shocked, but her widened eyes and ever-enlarging smile caused Stu's heart to lift substantially.

"S… Stu…" May begins, the corners of her eyes beginning to tear up. All of a sudden she flies from her chair and wraps her one good arm around Stu's shoulder so tightly that it was as though she was afraid of him floating away. "Stu, thank you! I wasn't sure if you did, but then I thought you might just be giving me a lot of time to think about it, but after so much time I was starting to think you didn't! You're so nice!"

Stu couldn't believe it. His face was washed over with red as he slowly, in a stunned fashion, put his arms around her as well. And then, slowly, the two stand up, still in a tight embrace and bumping into the odd chair or table as they edged absently to the door. Thankfully, it was ajar, and the two simply pushed it open and shuffled off and out of sight…

"And that, pals, is a job well done!" Hugh proclaims, getting up from his seat and walking to the group again casually. They all nod and hum in reply. "…Oh, and hey, since we're already on this kind of theme…"

With all kinds of casual flair to his movements, Hugh steps toward Lumina with a very strange smile on his face, and with a sudden movement, pulls something from his back pocket.

Everyone in the group nearly fell from their chairs.

"Wh… When did you get your hands on that?" Miro nearly yells, staring at it incredulously.

"While you were sleeping like a log until past 10 in the morning." Hugh replies, giving him a sideways glance before looking back to Lumina. Twirling it between his fingers once, Hugh lowers himself to one knee and presents Lumina with the Blue Feather, his smile ever-present.

"So, what do you think?" he asks simply. Lumina stares at it for a few moments, looking out-of-breath. She seemed almost at risk of hyperventalating. Finally, she takes in a normal-sized breath.

"Yes!" she shouts, no longer her usual timid smile, but one of complete, shyless affection on her face as she stands up from her chair, looking unsure of what to do now. Hugh gets up to his feet, knowing full-well what to do next. Quickly, but with enough emotion involved to make it seem as though in slow-motion, the two lock one another in an embrace and… do what is expected of two people who just got engaged in true Hollywood fashion.

"Oh, that's so sweet…" Anna coos, watching in a mesmerized way.

"Kinda early, though, isn't it?" William returns. "I mean, they were only official about a few days ago…"

"Yeah, but they've known one another for a while…" Miro points out, to William's shrugging nod. "And, you know, there's not that much choice in the matter, really…"

"…Is anyone else getting a little bored?" Kate asks, stretching her arms once.

"What?" Matthew asks sharply. "You just saw one relationship finally begin and another forge an eternal bond, and you're bored?"

"Yep." Kate states, getting to her feet. "I have an itch to head back home. Who wants to come see the Valley?"

"…Yeah, okay, sure." Miro replies, getting up as well. The others, albiet a bit more confused than the two of them, nod and muter in agreement and get to their feet as well.

"Come on, no time like the present." Miro states, heading for the door.

"But what about our parents?" William asks. "We should tell them…"

"Oh, that's okay." Anna assures him. He then turns to Doug. "Grandpa, can you tell everybody that we're headed for Miro and Kate and Hugh and Lumina's town?"

"Sure, yep." Doug replies, performing the routine Innkeep task of polishing a random glass with a cloth. Anna smiles, turning to the rest of the group.

"There, done." She says conclusively, walking out the open door first. Matthew follows, shaking his head slightly. Miro and Kate proceed after, their sudden and slightly odd inclination to head back home still not explained. Ricca, and then William walk through after them, looking a little interested in this idea. Finally, Hugh and Lumina, arm around one another, tail along behind.

Doug sniffs the air once, and then looks up to notice the door open and everyone gone.

"…Town's full of fish and the kids can't shut a door for the sake of keeping the smell away." He mutters. He then takes a second sniff and realizes something. "…Oh, wait, it's just me."

-

"Aww… Looks like Bry's found love." Celia states, her and Muffy walking down a street after eavesdropping on the scene outside the Inn from the shadows of the building. "…Then again, he failed to finish even one of them off."

"Oh, that doesn't really matter…" Muffy replies, shrugging a bit. "I mean, now that he's happy, he won't be after us for revenge. We're free to live our lives all happy and peaceful and…"

"Yes. That, and Jack and Nami got away before he could get here." Celia adds. "…I suppose we should just be happy with what we have."

Muffy nods to this. "I mean, if we spend the rest of our lives planning evil, jealous revenge plots, what does that leave us with? Maybe it's time to settle down and just live out our days as normal, non-evil pe-"

The two of them stop walking and pause suddenly, feeling a tap on their shoulders. They turn around to see who it was, and both jumped upon seeing Bry, with Karrie in the background, staring at them hard. He looks to Celia, and then Muffy glaringly, keeping his eyes on her as he cracked his knuckles.

"Hello, Mom…"


	43. A Most Kawaii of Conclusionisms

(Well, this is near the end. I noticed a plot hole or two that I've yet to fill in, but don't worry, I'll be sure to get all of it done during the veeeery last Chapter. I'll also be sure to try getting the very last Chapter done in earlier than a month. n-n; Well, best of reading. Review if you'd like, I always appreciate it.)

A day passed. Indeed, a day, just like that. A day so completely boring and pointless that it does not even deserve mention. No wolves chasing, no fireworks exploding, just a day of walking and chatting for the group of teens, and a boring one at that. However, by 11:00 am of the tomorrow of the day previous, they had reached the hill crest of Forget-Me-Not Valley, in all of its total serenity. The group proceeds down the hill gradually, and within a minute, they had reached the very bottom. The people from Mineral Town look around at the surroundings, a strange sensation overcoming most of them… Boredom.

"…This is it?" Ricca says incredulously. "You've lived in this place all of your lives? It's… tiny!"

"I don't even think it qualifies as a village…" Matthew states, taking in the incredibly small number of buildings and people wandering aimlessly about in the distance. "…or a hamlet… I never would have thought that Mineral Town was a large-scale community, but… this is just a bunch of vacationers who happened upon the same area by some strange coincidence…"

"You're not too far off." Miro states, glancing at him. "That's pretty much how this town was founded. First, there was some dead old farm that nobody's sure where it came from, and then I think Vesta's parents along with their friends Nina and Galen and I believe Romana and her husband came along, hoping to take claim of the dead farm, but then they figured out it would cost less just to build one of their own. A few years after that, a young couple, as in, like, fifteen, moved in and built a house right there," he pointed to the Inner Inn, "since they had run from their homes and thought that the property would be worth something eventually. The problem was, the dead farm brought the property value down. So-"

"Wait, I know this part," Kate cuts off, wanting to throw in her knowledge of the tiny habitation's history. The group had began walking again, passing Vesta's farm and nearing the bridge. "So Tim and Ruby, the couple, decided to make a risky investment and ask for a loan from the successful farm so that they could build a small Inn. Needless to say, it went down the toilet at first, so they moved out with what money they had to go travel the world. Now, some more time passed, and Vesta's parents and Romana and her husband had kids. At around the same time, I hear, Romana's husband died for… some reason, I don't know, but one of the funeral invitations was sent to a guy in a nearby city by mistake, who worked for the national government. He recognized the name and sent a return letter saying that Romana's husband was wanted dead or alive for fifty million dollars! That was a lot of money back then, too! So, this government guy comes into town and interviews Romana to see if she was the one that killed him. He didn't believe that she did at first, but after tasting her Beef Kabob he quickly changed his mind and handed her the check just before running out the door to puke."

"…But what was the guy wanted for in the first place?" William inquires as they cross over the bridge.

"Treason, to about twelve different countries," Miro states. "He had passed very important wartime documents into those countries but none of their governments were able to see them before he had moved on to a different country. But here's the catch: He never knew what he was doing. He just liked to move a lot and forgot that he had left the things in his briefcase."

"We're pretty sure that's where Lumina's oblivious nature comes from." Kate adds, clearing her throat to continue the story. "Anyway, after the money was handed to Romana, the co-owners of the farm figured that they should spread it evenly to benefit the property. But… Instead, Romana figured that it would be an even better idea to bring up tourism interest in the area by building a huge mansion on the top of that hill, and have her live in it to keep it maintained." She pointed a long distance away, to some elevated part of land too obscured with trees and other hills to really see. "The farmers accepted the idea, especially since Romana had a child to raise so she really didn't have the time to help much on the farm. Of course, a while later the bunch of them realized that they had been seriously duped, but it was too late by then…"

"Not too long after, Vesta's folks had her." Miro continues. "A lovely, 12 pounds 9 ounces little girl. Since there were two parents to the kid, though, they didn't have to move out of the farm to take care of her. At around the same time, too, the pyrotechnicians of the place moved in, bringing their entire, empty water tower with them by camel-back. They were kind of, umm, new to the business and such, so the bangs, sparks, and occasional brush-fires attracted the attention of three little kids who wandered away from their campsite."

"Oh, and the kids were Lumina's dad, Takakura, and, umm…" Hugh trails off, scratching his head in thought.

"My grandpa." Miro finishes for him. "The three of them knew each other pretty well, from what I've heard. Anyway, they were called back to camp and such. But after realizing that people actually camped near here, the farmers got the idea of refurbishing the abandoned Inn and calling Tim and Ruby back over to return. So yeah, they did." He motions toward the Inner Inn, which they were just passing. "So some more years passed, and people started noticing the place. Hardy was one of the first; he's our doctor. And then a young scientist who got knocked out of his academy on a count of insanity, and a metalurgist, and other types… mind you, this is over about ten years."

"Oh," Lumina chimes in, remembering this part of the timeline since her grandmother had told her of it. "And after some time, Miro's grandfather, Takakura, and my Dad came back to visit for an extended vacation. My mother got engaged to my father, and they left back to the city together. Miro's grandfather and Takakura were somewhat older, and Miro's grandfather was already married. They all left back to the city and Miro's father was born, as well as me about seven or eight-"

"Nine." Kate corrects.

"…Nine years later." Lumina concludes, sighing lightly. "Tim and Ruby had a child as well, the same year as Jack was born. Jack's mother and both of my parents died in a car crash… umm, separate ones. Two separate ones, one for Jack's mother, and one for my par-"

"We get it." Hugh says, speaking for the group since, if he got it, it's likely that everyone else did as well. He decides to continue. "And, yeah, at around that time, my mom and dad and me all moved in at that house there," he nods over to it as they passed by. "And then some more time passed, and this random hippie kid Gustafa of about nineteen unpacked his yurt and decided to live here. Some archeologists did, too. They found out that there's some big secret buried out underground or something…"

"And that old barn was still lying around there without an owner?" Ricca remarks, looking strangely.

"…Well, somebody bought it eventually." Miro points out.

"Who was the sucker?"

"…My grandpa. And he was not a sucker, he was an entrepeneur." Miro claims, snuffing defiantly. "My Dad says that he told Grandpa that a farm in the country would make more sense than the city farm he and Tak were trying to make, so Gramps went and bought this place."

"City farm…" Kate mutters. "Jee, I can see where you get it from…"

"Get what?"

"Err, nothing."

"Around that time was a good idea, too." Hugh adds suddenly. "Both of Vesta's folks died about a year before, so the founding farm had dwindled a little. Vesta, though, about a month after their passing-off, got her brother Marlin dragged over here and Celia followed soon after. And not only that, Miro's mom wandered into here, too."

"And Grandpa, poor guy, died at about 50, before he could even touch his new property." Miro proceeds. "So my Dad had to take over, with Tak helping to get things from the city. Now get this… He put himself on a deadline, mostly by trying to marry my Mom, since she was planning to leave in a year. Soon enough, he proposed, and I guess she said yes."

"…Hang on, your Dad and Mom married a year within even seeing each other?" William gasps, looking at Miro strangely.

"I guess so, yeah…" Miro mutters, shrugging a bit. "Times were different back then, I suppose. People were more… careless, or something."

"And then, a few years later, my family moved in and Miro was born." Kate concluded. She thought a moment longer, but for some reason couldn't think of anything else to add. "…Um, and I guess that's all that has happened so far."

"Hey, you know, this whole thing we've gone through is probably an important bit of history for this town." Miro points out, the idea suddenly coming to mind. "I mean, we killed a demon that's been plaguing the town since Galen was only touching on senility, and we had some good adventure along the way. And most of the parents of both towns got together and formed a posse to find us-"

"And any posse is worth noting in history." Kate agrees with a nod. "But, umm… Daachan really wasn't 'plaguing' the town. I mean, it was sitting still in your bedroom for about ten years, that's not exactly threatening the people of the Valley…"

"And are we sure it's dead?" William adds in tentatively. Kate and Miro glare at him coldly.

"YES." They both hiss sharply.

"We smashed it up, it's over, it's gone, its toast, it's dead, okay?" Miro demanded, to William's repeated nodding. "Good…"

"Hey, where are we going, anyway?" Anna inquires, to the group's shrugs. They were at the end of the pathway now, which turned up toward the mansion. They pondered for a moment as to what they should do next.

"Let's split up and take a look around town." Ricca suggests. To this, the group nods.

"I need to check on the farm, anyway…" Miro states. With that, the lot of them broke off into small groups and began to tour the town's various sights.

- - -

Miro stepped into the farmland, noting that the level of destruction wasn't nearly as high as he expected. They would likely need a new front door and many of the plants were wilted, but aside from that, property damage was at a particular low. He continued walking, looking left and right for any signs of the volunteers. Matthew was walking with him since he wanted to see the farm first before any of the other sights. Unfortunately, Miro forgot to look down, and a soft squish below his foot signified that at least one worker was present at the site. Lifting his foot carefully, Miro noticed the light blue Harvest Sprite Nak staring back up at him from the shoe's imprint.

"Oh… Um, hello there," Miro says in an apologetic tone. "…Is everyone else gone or something?"

After a moment of struggle, Nak pulls himself from the ground and stands up, looking at him.

"Yep." He replies. "Your Mom and Dad showed up and said that we could stop, but I was supposed to stay here to tell you."

"Okay… And where are they now?" inquires Miro, looking around once more.

"They left on an errand a while ago. I like their new boat, it's really fast." Nak answers, smiling up at him. Miro smirks and then sighs.

"Well, you're free to go." He says, waving him off. Nak nods and scurries along past him and Matthew, heading back into the forest that was his home.

"That was interesting, I suppose." Matthew says, shrugging a little. Miro nods. A few moments of silence pass by, and Matthew yawns once before looking to Miro again.

"…What do you think of getting engaged?"

"Sorry, I don't like you that much."

"No, I mean to Kate."

"To Kate…?" Miro paused at the idea. After a moment of humming in thought, he shrugged. "Yeah, it would be nice. It's bound to happen eventually."

"Well, you could do it right now." Matthew suggests. Miro gives him an odd look.

"And get married at fifteen?" he inquires.

"You don't have to marry right away." Matthew states. "Tradition says that you can delay the wedding for as long as you want. You can just get the engaging part out of the way right now."

"And why should I, again?" Miro asks, looking at him.

"Can you think of anything better to do?"

"…Point taken."

A few minutes later, the plan was set. Miro only had to retrieve his parents' Blue Feather from the display case on the shelf of their fireplace, bring it to Kate, and all is well. Matthew waited patiently outside the door, and Miro, having stepped in and reached the fireplace, stared at it expectantly. Reaching out a hand, he touched the glass lid of the case with intention to open it, and was met by a section of the stone shelf flipping from where it sat and smashing his arm.

"…Something up, Miro?" Matthew inquires when the screaming faded. Miro steps out, nursing his arm, and glares at him with annoyance.

"No, I'm peachy." He replies. "I was shouting in joy and praise of all the goodness in the world, Matthew."

Matthew could sense sarcasm. "…So it's trapped?"

"Yes."

"Well, try a stick."

And try a stick he did. Upon his second attempt, Miro found a long piece of discarded wood and reaches it out from the other side of the room to try and open the box in a safer manner. As soon as he touched the glass, the trap sprung just as he expected. But when it replaced itself once more, he groped at the box with the stick again. When he touched this time, however, the trap did not spring. He would have appreciated this immensely if he weren't immediately unconscious from the second trap, being a section of roof flying down and striking his head where he stood. It replaced itself into the roof calmly once this occurance was said and done.

- - -

"How's the concussion?"

Not the loveliest words to hear when one wakes up. Miro opens his eyes slowly, followed by squinting both in pain and in determining the identity of the blur speaking to him. After a moment, he realized it was Matthew, and sighed.

"It's doing just fine…" he hisses irritably. After a moment, he sits up, looking at his surroundings. "…What, you didn't move me?"

"You've still got a job to do. No time for medical care." Matthew replies sternly.

"…How about; You give it a shot, while I try to remember my birthday." Miro suggests with a sideways glare. Matthew smiles a little nervously and, after a moment of deliberation, nods.

Looking around, he attempts to spot something irregular about the walls of the area. What exactly he was looking for, Miro didn't care. After a moment, though, Matthew seemed to find whatever it was and walked to a section of wall that seemed just about as inconspicuous as every other section of wall to Miro. However, with a very particular series of taps on the knotholes of the section, it suddenly made an odd beeping noise and flipped around to reveal a small keyboard and screen. Miro's eyes widened.

"Why didn't Mom or Dad tell me the house was wired?" he mumbled to himself, Matthew turned to him with a 'shh' and went back to the keyboard, beginning to type on it in a long sequence, apparently trying to get into the house's marital security database.

"Registry: .hack/bluefeathersecurity …Denied. .hack/marriage …Denied. .hack/jackisoneluckybastard …Approved." Matthew mutters, smiling as he got into the security system. After a moment, however, he widens his eyes in surprise. "What the…?"

Before him was a virtual game of checkers. He was black, his opponent, red. The red side moved after a moment, and then awaited his turn.

"Oh, I get it… Must be some kind of security system." He mutters. Miro was staring, dumbfounded, from his spot on the floor.

"We don't even have a real game of checkers!" he snaps. "Talk about holding out on me! Over fifteen years with nothing but blocks and crap to keep me busy!"

"Miro-"

"I almost had to go into therapy!"

"Miro, let me concentrate." Matthew says calmly. With a huff, Miro quiets up and allows Matthew to continue his game.

Roughly half an hour later, Matthew had jumped the last of his opponent's pieces with the very last of his own. A tough game – not noteworthy of a play-by-play, but needless to say it was programmed well.

"Hah, victory." He states, holding a fist out to the screen. He then watches it intently for the security menu to appear. Sadly, however, the computer did not take to being defeated very well: proving beyond much doubt that it was programmed by Nami, a section of wall above the monitor shot out, struck Matthew right above the rim of his hat, and retracted once more. Matthew paused a moment, blinked, and then fell to the ground with Miro's laughter encouraging him to lose consciousness.

- - -

"How's the karma?"

"Shut up…"

"You can't even remember what I'm talking about."

"The massive headache is giving me an indication…" Matthew replies, raising a hand to the side of his head before opening his eyes. "…You didn't move me?"

"Usually I would have, because I'm a better person than you, but then I remembered… I'm not." Miro states from where he was sitting on the floor. "Besides, that's what you get for leaving me on the ground to bruise and taunting the computer."

"Right…" Matthew grumbles, pushing himself into a sitting position. "…But what should we do now?"

"We go at it together." Miro says while getting to his feet. "I'm sure it couldn't take both of us."

"Bull-rushing a security system…" Matthew mutters. With a sigh, he stands up fully as well. "I suppose that might work, yes… Fine, let's do it."

"All right." Miro begins in preparation, both he and Matthew facing the glass case and getting into a running position. "On three… One, two, three!"

- - -

Awakening a couple of hours later, Miro peeled his eyelids slowly open to see what had just happened. At the time, he once again couldn't remember exactly, but a funny sense of repetition seemed strongly present. Noticing that there was sky above him, he noted that he was somewhere outside, and glanced around to find exactly where. Immediately he noticed that he was just beyond the door to his house, and that Matthew lay some distance from him, still completely unconscious.

With an effort, he strained himself into a sitting position, noting the pounding headache that made itself present as he did so. He was sure that he had noted quite a few various things that day, but it was no matter since he had forgotten basically all of them. He followed sitting up with standing up, only narrowly keeping his balance but eventually gaining all of the equilibrium he could ever dream of for walking, or perhaps even kicking Matthew awake. However, he decides against it after a moment. These were his favorite shoes…

Someone cleared their throat. Miro looked around, trying to spot the mysterious figure who apparently had mucus blocking their airway. At first, he noticed no one, but upon looking back to his house he noticed a human elbow sticking lazily into vision from around the corner. Cautiously, he stepped around to it, and once the shaded side of the house could be seen by him he realized who the elbow belonged to.

"…Oh, hey Mom, Dad…" he muttered, sounding a little nervous for his own sake. Nami and Jack, both leaning against the house with arms crossed in an equal matter, looked to him calmly. Jack smiled a bit.

"Aren't we rushed?" says Jack, the smile still on his face as though he knew something beyond the situation that even Miro was aware of.

"Miro, you didn't need to try stealing our own Blue Feather." Nami states, face unchanging but with a tone of irony to her voice. "You could have just waited."

"Waited? No, no way was I gonna ask you for it!" said Miro, sounding quite nearly as off-centered as he felt. "I was either stealing it or not getting it at all!"

"Of course," Jack replies. "it would've been a really awkward thing to do, asking like that. I wouldn't. I sure don't expect you to. But that's not what we're talking about, now is it?"

"What…?" Miro mutters, tilting his head a little in confusion. The look on Jack's face was beginning to make it glaringly obvious that they knew something that he didn't…

"Oh, come on, when was the last time we needed to leave town for an errand?" Jack reminds him. "I'm telling you, you could have just waited and I'm sure that a Feather of some sort would have come your w-"

"Hand it over."

"O-kay."

With lavish, Jack reached into his pocket – a pocket reserved only for important things – and pulled out the physical element of all great affection, holding it out to Miro expectantly. Miro spent a moment looking at it, and then quickly snatched it away, turning and beginning to walk. However, he stopped, and half turned to them.

"…You're not mad?" he asks a little timidly. Jack and Nami shake their heads.

"You have no idea how much better this is than what we did." Jack says, chuckling a little.

"At least the two of you have known each other all of your lives, that's much more time than we had to think about it." Nami adds with a small sigh. "…But still, if you decide to marry before nineteen, I'll twist your head off personally."

"Eheh… right…" Miro muttered, nodding nervously a little. Nami, though, looked unimpressed with his reply. Realizing why, he shook of his nervousness and made his face more solid and unapproachable. "That is, if you're not too musty to twist off a cork by that time, Mamsie."

Nami smiles a little. At least the whole adventure hadn't turned him completely righteous and social with others. She holds her hand out, waving it in a dispersing manner to signify that he could go. Miro nods, turns, and hurries away.

- - -

Sunlight shone down in mystical, wavering beams between the branches of forest's trees. Anna and Kate were observing the scenery; Anna with awe, Kate with slight boredom since she had been to this spring on numerous occasions.

"Wow… We don't have any place as pretty as this at home…" Anna says, walking to one of the oversized flowers growing about and touching it curiously. "It's so smooth…"

"Yeah, it's plenty smooth…" Kate mutters, standing idly near the pond. She was bored, not that this was a place that bored her usually, but she felt like there was something that needed doing at the moment. It made her fidget… She then heard footsteps, somebody was coming up the path at an excitedly hurried pace. As she watched, she saw Miro round the corner of the path and start toward them, slowing to a walk when he got near. He seemed to notice Anna, who was now trying to pull the flower she had admired from its roots, and he cleared his throat.

"Anna, Matthew's been knocked out. Um, he's outside the farm house and I don't think he's woken up yet." He says, nodding toward the path hintingly. Anna blinked once, looking away from her flower and toward Miro.

"Oh, okay Miro. Should I bring ice?" she inquires. Miro nods slightly. "Okay, I'll find some and then I'll go help him! See you guys later!"

With the determination of a movie hero, Anna dashes off to the pathway and is quickly lost to sight, the echoing of her laughing call rebounding off into nothing.

"She's an awkward girl…" Miro mutters, half-shrugging once.

"Of course, we all know that…" Kate agrees.

"…She um, doesn't she seem like she should be Ricca's mom's daughter instead? They're both bubbly…" Miro claims, rocking casually on the balls of his feet.

"Well… yeah, things happen…" Kate states. Obviously they were both stalling for something. Kate was stalling for what Miro was stalling for, but she wasn't sure what Miro was stalling for in the first place… "Was that all you're here for, Miro?"

"What? No, no, I'm here for… Here, I'm here for this." Miro says, stepping toward Kate. He stops about a step away from her, and takes in a deep breath. Quietly, he lets it out, and then proceeds to flex his fingers some and shake his head to the sides. Kate looks at him oddly.

"…You're here to teach me Pilates?"

"No!" Miro snaps, glaring at her for a moment. He regains his composure as quickly as he can, however, and makes a quick plan of his next movements in order to perfectly execute what must be done. When his decision was made, he spun once, pulled the object from his pocket, fell quickly to one knee and held it out in shameless display.

"…Kate …will you marry me …um, you know, later?"

At first, and for once in quite some time, Kate was dumbstruck. She was at a complete loss of what to say. But, with a moment's recovery, she decided on it.

"Oh… Well, I don't know… I mean, there's so many other people to choose from that I- YES!" she screamed, actually jumping up and down once or twice. Before Miro could join in, however, Kate held a finger to him and stated "BUT… I want you to say it."

"…Say it?" Miro echoes in annoyance. "But I already did say it…"

"You said it hanging from a cliff when you thought that you were going to die." Kate states, nodding down at him. "I don't see much commitment in that. Do you? Now that you know that you have the rest of your life to pay for it, can you say it right now?"

"…Well, what about you?" Miro retorts, eyeing her heatedly. "You only said it when you were sure that I was going to die! When I was in the middle of falling! How's that for commitment?"

"…All right, let's go the route of tradition." Kate decides with a nod. "You say it first, and then I say it back. Okay?"

"Fine… Hmph, I bet girls are the ones who invented discrimination so they don't have to do the awkward stuff…" Miro mutters to himself. Then, clearing his throat, he looks up to Kate with eyes of complete and utter sincerity. "Kate… In all honesty, I love you."

Kate smiled and leaned down to look at Miro directly. "And you know what? I really love you, too."

She takes the feather from his hand and slips it into her dress pocket. "There. I'll be saving that for later."

Miro stands up, nodding once. That was it. The deal was done. The crippling weakness in their legs and the fairly concealed but still present shake in their voices were due to subside any moment now… Any moment…

"…Let's try something." He suggests. Already on the same wavelength as Miro, Kate nods, and the two approach and enter a picturesque, full-length, fuzzy kiss that, although not lasting days, held to it a certain quality that made it even better than the first. Blissful moments passed before they separate once more, still holding one another by the arms but both looking at once another in a strange mix of passion and suspicion.

"…Are you still you?" Kate asks.

"Yeah… And you're still you?" Miro replies.

"Yep." Kate says. "…So, I suppose we've found our internal-cosmical-biological peace, then, right?"

"Yeah… Well, we can't be certain just like that." Miro states. "I mean, just once we didn't turn into our romantic selves, that's not good enough. We'll need to test a few more times."

"Oh, of course." Kate agrees with a small smile. "Many more times, I'll say."

"Yeah, like there's the environment to think about."

"Also the lighting."

"The air temperature of the moment."

"Not even counting the humidity factor."

"Also the number and variety of animals present in the particular habitats."

"We'll need to do extensive indoor experiments for different wallpaper and tablecloth patterns and colours."

"We'll need to do field experiments for certain positions of the sun and the direction the wind is blowing."

"Cloud cover's also a big factor. Jee, we'll need to write a thesis for all of this!"

"We might even have to call in some scientists!"

"There's another factor; the number of scientists present…"

"Boy, we have a lot of work ahead of us…"

The two sigh, shaking their heads as they tried to estimate just how much kissing they would have to do for the next long, long while. They let one another go after a few moments. After even a few more moments, they both turn their heads toward the spring, which both were standing neat the edge of. Now, more than ever, its shimmering light took them into a world beyond all mortality, all conflict… It now and forever would symbolize this moment for them, encase the memory in its shining, smooth waters. This day here was just another ripple in its great, peaceful perfection, but one that had perhaps decided the final destiny of the two of them. It was the eve of any of their unsureness; any of their fears had been dispersed these past few moments and given way to the dawn of their destiny, together, as a unified entity of love, happiness, and perfect-

"HI, KA-"

"HI, MI-"

The two pause. They had both yelled at the same time… They continue to look at each other, as they had turned to try startling one another well enough… After a few moments, the two smile, and shrug. They allow themselves to tip slowly over the edge, leaning and leaning until they felt themselves pass the point of no return and, not long after, fall into the formerly-calm waters with a massive splash.


	44. A Few Years Later

(This is it, the big send-off of this Fic. It's been over a year since I started this dealie, and now that it's over I can't do much more than thank you all for being so positive of it! Well, I suppose I can do a little more… Oh, here's something. Look for a sequel to this puppy sometime in the future, though I'm gonna admit this now; it won't be anytime soon. I _would_ write a sequel right away, but you'll all have to trust me when I say that that just won't work. Not with what I have in mind. Also, finishing this Fic means that I can finally let my Writer's ADD fly, so don't be surprised if you run into one of the several one-shots I have pent up in my brain for some of the other categories in this site. Now, give this thing a read and finally we can close the back cover on what eventually became the second-longest story in the entire HM category! See you around!)

It was the clearest and most pleasant Summer day that anyone could ask for. Its heat was compromised moments at a time by a light, coastal breeze, which left the Valley feeling as pristine as anyone could wish for, and maybe even a little more. The old farm on the hill, once a disgraceful mess of wood and tiling (and even worse-off before Jack had arrived), was now a humble but savory place of belonging, and a young man could not ask for a better, more nostalgically-appeasing home.

This young man, of red hair and quiet demeanor, could not help but speak in a voice that would make a silly person of a father proud, as he recounted his personal belongings for no one in particular but himself to hear, within his lovely home.

"My shelf… my calendar… my bookcase, my TV, my bed…" he lists, walking to each of the items as he went and pointing to them with officiality. "My front door, my kitchen door, my record player…"

An image of a young woman stepped in from the recently-claimed kitchen door, her amber locks framing the whites and purples of her new dress, which she hefted unsurely.

"…What do you think, Miro?" she asks, tilting her head a little. Miro turned from the front door and inspected it up and downward with a quick glance. He took a few steps closer, putting a hand to his chin.

"…Well, your amber locks frame it pretty well," he states. "Why, you think something's wrong with it?"

"Not really," replies Kate, shrugging slightly. "I just don't want to look like I can't do my share of the work. It seems a little dainty to me."

"…Kate, nobody has come to this town since you did at the age of five," he reminds her with a little smile. "if anybody still doesn't get the fact that you're a born fighter, they can taste the end of your Wind Scrape."

Kate laughs a little. "I don't know if I even have that little knife anymore. But thanks." And she kissed him on the cheek.

Once again, Miro felt glee. "That's what I love about being married. The kisses come in much shorter intervals." He chuckles a little and then pauses to think. "How many are we at now, again?"

"Two thousand, one hundred and sixty-two." Kate replies, remembering to put another notch on their extremely long scoresheet next to the fridge. "Do you think we're safe yet?"

"Oh, I'd wait a little longer…" Miro replies. The two laugh slightly. They always had to wait a little longer…

"…Well, I'm going to see what we've got for lunch." Kate says, stepping back and beginning toward the kitchen. "And you're cooking. I've got burn marks up to my elbows from that evil chowder from hell that we ate yesterday."

Miro shrugged and nodded, and Kate disappeared through the doorway. After a few moments, he decided to check and see if his old bedroom needed any kind of maintenance work, as well as to count the things inside of it. He approached the shut door casually, opened it, and was greeted by gentle breeze and a pristine but partially tree-blocked view of the small village and ocean below. He paused a moment, mouth agape. Someone had stolen his room…

He looked downward, at the now-empty square of dirt that once was the foundation of that part of the house, and noticed, in the very middle, a tiny, folded piece of paper. Deciding he had little else to go with, he hopped down into the flattened patch of earth and trotted over to the paper inquisitively, kneeling down and picking it up. He unfolded it – as he expected, it was a note.

_Dear Miro,_

_As you might have noticed, your old bedroom no longer exists. It and most of the things inside of it have been towed away overnight and sold. You may also notice that the house is a little more squat, as we have sold the second floor as well. Take a good look at what the house is right now, Miro. This is the condition it was in when your mother and I started our lives together. The kitchen, the main room, and that's about it. Also, most of the animals have been sold, other than Greaser, our cow Totosai, our bull Cinna, and four chickens. Well, the goat also, but only because no one wanted to buy it. As for the farm's bank account, we've lowered it to the amount it was nine months before you were born. Welcome to your farm, son. Your mother and I are off to our vacation, and we'll be back… whenever we want to! You on the other hand have some work to do, and I suggest you get cracking right away. I know I had to… So, I hope you and Kate have the best time of all together, and might I add, buy a seed maker before a Star Cow. Those things don't come pre-filled with milk, you know._

_Have a wonderful life… or close enough anyway,_

_Dad_

Miro stared at this with disbelief, trying vainly for a moment to unlock some mysterious brain power to change the words of the letter to something else, something that involved him having all of his stuff still… After a moment, though, he realized it to be impossible, and let the note drop loosely from his hands. He felt the extremely appreciated and called-for emotion of anger begin to well up inside of him, and with a swift motion took a deep breath and looked up spitefully at the heavens.

"**SON OF A-**"

-

The soils of the field were ripe, ready for their next set of Summer crops after the pretty-good-for-Spring income of the last harvest. Much contemplation had been done regarding how this farm was to be run for the coming generatrion, but no one else in Mineral Town was more ready and able to do such contemplating than the one self-assigned to the duty. Cap faced forward and hands pocketed, the quiet eyes of the… potentially able-bodied Matthew scan over the huge slab of planting grounds, dotted by the occasional weed or rock or area of fence. Though he was none too experienced with the concept, it seemed that the grass field could be cut as well. Work had to be done, that much was apparent…

Anna stood a slight distance behind him, and stepped forward with caution. No longer did she wear a skirt, but a… longer skirt, which ended just before her knees. Her shirt also covered all of her stomach, but other than those details she looked nearly the same as she did during the great events those short years previous – pink streaked hair with glittering stars and all. To compare, Matthew had also narry changed other than growing to be just a bit taller than his father, causing him to need a new sweatshirt, and gaining slightly broader shoulders from taking over the delivery work at the Blacksmith (to quote his father: 'Trust me, those Yarn and Cheese Makers don't move themselves').

Matthew looked over to Anna, who nodded back to her husband. "Now?" she inquires.

"I suppose," replies Matthew with a slight nod. Anna smiled and stepped back, waiting eagerly for the event to occur. With a sigh to loosen the tension of the moment, Matthew spread his arms out to the sides, took in a breath and, after a moment's pause, spoke.

"Do it."

Immediately, the rainbowesque family of Harvest Sprites appeared from multiple nowheres such as the doghouse and behind rocks and the watering can lying against the barn, each of them marching forward with excited badums of joy and quickly surrounding Matthew. Then, all together, they jumped onto or climbed up his person, summoning various garments when they had reached their desired point. Two summoned white gloves, which were placed overtop of Matthew's hands. Three more created a pair of overalls which covered over Matthew's pants, the straps of which swung over his shoulders and clipped on easily. His shoes, formerly mortal, worn sneakers, morphed into resiliant (some would say invincible) rubber boots. A red bandanna was conjured from air and wrapped around his neck loosely, tying off at the ends. Aqua was just ready to add the final touch, but Matthew shook his head firmly.

"No, I will."

With that, the Sprites jumped off of him and watched, waiting in excited anticipation. With an air of finality, Matthew reached both hands up to his head, found the beak of his cap, and swung it around, almost completely backward. The farm was filled with excited cries and applause from little hands, which Anna joined in with happiness. After it had faded, the miniature work force each gave Matthew a salute, and then broke off in various directions, vanishing from view as quickly as they had appeared.

Matthew looked down at himself for a moment, contemplatingly. His left eye squinted slightly; he wasn't yet used to it being under direct sunlight. Anna approached her husband and wrapped an arm around his neck, giggling.

"You're so cute now! You look just like Dad!" she claims, taking a moment to nuzzle the side of her face to his. Matthew smiled a little, looking down at his gloved hands and inspecting them at several angles. He then looked back up at the expansive field; a plain, almost featureless slate, waiting to be filled… by them. By their will and ambition, their desire and love and what would be their legacy. They would also have to make room for crops. Matthew smiled again at this thought, but lessened it to make way for a look of long-standing determination and preparedness for the task ahead of Anna and himself.

"Well, let's get started…"

-

Once again, the peaceful, pristine scene of Romana's manor were being accented by a beautiful keyed melody emanating from its open windows. The years since the wedding of two loving people who lived within that great mansion had been filled with melodies of bliss and happiness, as its originator, Lumina, had found herself inspired by the positive aura her works received from her musically-inept but well-meaning husband. Not only had Hugh, over the years, gained some competency in the field of musical appreciation and understanding, but he was beginning to enchance his vocabulary, as he found more and more clever-sounding ways to say 'good'.

Lumina was smiling, swaying to the tune of her own keys as she raised her arms upward and downward with the movement of the piano before her. After ending her tune with a light and majestic crescendo, she dropped her hands down to her lap and watched as the piano was set on the ground carefully from below. A moment later, Hugh appeared from underneath, rolling the bench press he had installed coasters onto along and stopping once his entire self had appeared from the keyboard instrument's left side. A thin growth of stubble was present across his face, but his one-shave-a-week policy had been enough to prevent anything near full-beardedness. He lay on his bench for a while, panting to catch his breath and raising a tired arm to wipe sweat from his brow. He looked to Lumina once this was done.

"How was that? Did I keep up with the tempo?" he inquires, beginning to fan himself off with one hand.

"Almost perfect this time." Lumina replies, smiling her subtle, delicate smile to him. "And how was I?"

"Admirable." Hugh returns proudly, glad of the discovery of a word even better than that of 'commendable'. He honestly did enjoy her playing, but keeping a thesaurus at his bedside with which to study every night always helped him to better express his appreciation. Lumina laughed softly and put a hand to her mouth. Suddenly, a question of his own came to Hugh.

"And hey, how's the newest member of town coming along?" he inquires. Lumina, still smiling, looked down to herself and lowered her head a little, putting her hands to her middle.

"It's only been two months," she states. "but it feels fine. I haven't gotten really sick or anything yet."

"Good to hear." Hugh states with a grin, lifting himself to a sitting position and grabbing the towel he had placed on the side of the piano. He slung it over his shoulder and continued. "We should think of what we'll name the kid sometime. If it's a boy, I'd say Wally, like my Dad. Uh… Though I don't think my mom's name would work well if it's a girl, to be honest… What do you think?"

"If it's a girl?" Lumina echoes, to Hugh's nod. She took a moment to think about this. "How about… Reona?"

"Nah, I don't know… too fuzzy." Hugh replies, shrugging a little. "It won't work for this generation. Dad's name might not work either… Hmm…"

"Well, we still have seven months to think about it, dear. Don't bother running it through your mind right away." Lumina reminds him, getting to her feet and folding her hands together. "Now, let's get that chest of yours waxed and oiled up. It would be nice to have three Mr. Smalltown Universe trophies in a row."

Hugh nodded in agreement, and with the glee that only a chest-waxing could bring to him, followed Lumina closely as she walked to the door of their large and fully-used beauty parlor and equipment room.

-

"Order up!" calls a young lady standing at the front of the Beach House till, glancing behind her to the backroom for the person she was calling at. She wore a dark sleeved shirt with two pink hearts leaned against one another on the collar, and as per usual sported her capris, a deal of which were covered by a white apron. The star chains and necklace she usually wore were discarded for the moment, left on a shelf nearby to ensure that no one would get a tooth-cracking surprise in their spaghetti dinner. Her pink hair was tied back in a loose bun, which she admittedly hated, but it was somewhat necessary when in the food service.

"What've we got?" comes the reply from the backroom, a brown-topped head popping into view from the doorway. Behind said doorway the young man was also wearing a cooking apron, as well as a casual white tee shirt and blue jeans common of him.

"Six threes, three eights and eight sevens," she lists, to the other's confusion.

"…Seven eights?" he echoes.

"Eight sevens," corrects the girl.

"Ah… And four threes-?"

"Three eights, and six threes."

"Any fours?"

"No."

"So, five threes, eight eights and four sevens?"

"…Just make a bunch of snowcones."

"Righto, Ricca," William replies, shrinking nervously back into the kitchen. Ricca sighed, but smiled, tapping her fingers absently on the top of the sneeze guard as she waited. The number system didn't seem to be working for William, and they only really used it for the sake of efficiency, which seemed a little pointless since the Beach House had a reputation for being a little… slow, business-wise. She was beginning to consider switching back to the old system, not that that was her top interest at the time. Nor was the large juggle of jobs that might make itself apparent soon, since the Doctor could usually handle the Clinic alone and it seemed as though Stu was planning to take work there himself, and the Inn was going to be handled by Anna when her mother was off and would be aided by May, and it seemed that Saibara would never keel over while there was still work to do in the Blacksmith, especially since his great-grandson Matthew didn't seem likely to follow in his father's footsteps, and even when he does die Gray would likely step out of 'retirement' to take charge, and May and Stu together would have enough time to manage Yodel Farm whilst taking care of their other small tasks, and Poultry Farm would someday be taken care of by Karrie and Bry, once they decide to end their worldly tours abroad and settle somewhere, but in the meantime Karen and Rick did a moderate job of keeping things in order. The Library was a given, since Mary basically lived there and would likely die there, hunched over the final page of the final chapter of Fantasy Meadows XXVIII or something, long after someone else who could take care of it shows up.

And that left the Beach House… Ricca had no real complaints of working there. It was a very cheery and bright place, and made even better by the presence of her freshly-entitled husband. Rarely was she content when she was a teen, moreso on the day that William disappeared and became that alter-self of his, but now that things had slowed down and mellowed out, Ricca had found the opportunity to stop and smell the Moondrops; notice how her life was proceeding. And, even with utmost strain to find one, she was surprised to realize that she couldn't conjure up a single complaint…

"Here they are!" calls William from the backroom, stepping in cautiously from the doorway with two large, round trays of snowcones balancing on his hands. "Um… A little help…?"

Ricca turned her head to see him and widened her eyes, immediately walking to him and taking one of the trays with both hands. William sighed and nodded in thanks, holding the tray he still had with the aid of his now-free hand.

"Who made this huge order, anyway?" William inquires, the two passing around the till and heading toward the door.

"The bunch lounging around outside," Ricca replies.

"Are they still there?" William incredulously asks, glancing to her with some surprise and some amusement.

Ricca smiles at his expression and shrugs slightly, trying not to shift the tray while doing so. "Take a look for yourself."

Opening the door (with some difficulty), the two of them step out of the little building and into the bright sunlight washing like a constant tide over the beach. As quickly as they could, they approach the startlingly long line of beach chairs, upon each of which lay a sunbathing, swimsuit-donned and harshly middle-aged person. Obidiently, Ricca and William step to each of them, handing a snowcone sequentially to Cliff, Elli, Rick, Karen, Ann, Jack (her husband), Popuri, Kai, Gray, Mary, Celia, Marlin, Muffy, and Rock. The task finished, the couple put the empty trays under their arms and walk back to the resturant, waiting a moment before taking hands and leaning into each other warmly. In time, they had disappeared behind the Beach House door once more.

"They're so sweet…" Elli coos, smiling and staring off to where they went.

"Juicy, too," Jack adds helpfully, taking a loving bite out of his snowcone.

"I think she meant Ricca and William, Dear," Ann corrects. Jack only shrugs and continues his escapade into the dephs of his frozen treat.

"This… is the life," Cliff states, putting his arms behind his head and staring off into the clear skies above. "We work hard for years, break our backs for the new generation, and now that they're up for taking our jobs full-time, we have the time to relax…"

"I woulda killed for one day's break like this sometime in the first five years I took over the farm…" Jack comments, taking a break from his snowcone just long enough to say that.

"No doubt, not at all," Rick says in agreement, fixing his sunglasses overtop of his regular glasses. "Farm life is 24-7, unless you have decent help in which case it's perhaps 17-7."

"Honey, Honey, leave jokes to the funny ones," Karen politely reminds him, taking a sip of her seventh grape martini and still going strong. Rick muttered but shrugged agreeingly with a small grin. A few moments passed before someone else spoke.

"…You know, I've been wondering something," Kai states, sitting up slightly and glancing to the sunbathing Muffy. "That Bry, your son, why does he look so much like Miro? They're not related or anything."

"…Oh? That's a funny little story, really," Muffy begins, shifting to attempt to get one of her whitening gold locks unstuck from a joint in her chair. "When I was younger, I always wanted to know what it would be like, having a child with Jack… So, when I discovered Daachan, my first wish was that my baby would look like what he would look like if Jack was the father… Of course, I couldn't let everyone know I had done something like that, so I had Bry locked in the Inn basement for the first fifteen years of his life…"

"Apparently I wasn't good enough just as myself…" Rock mutters, stretching and yawning a little moodily.

"It was just a passing fancy, Hon," Muffy reassures him. At that, Rock gave her an odd glance.

"Plotting to kill Jack's family for over fifteen years-?"

"Just a passing fancy."

"We always liked him, but we knew that you two really returned feelings to us," Celia states, glancing over to Marlin. "Jack was just a little… fun on the side; plotting revenge on his family and such…"

"…In phychology terms, I believe that's called a 'case study'," Mary states, sighing once.

"I would have never guessed that you were married, you know," Gray says, lifting his still-present cap (which had gotten just a little musty over the years) slighty and looking to the four Valley residents. "Why did we never see you when we were off looking for the kids?"

"Well, I was um, helping out with a farm," Rock replies, nodding a bit to himself. "Everyone was away, somebody had to take care of things."

"As for me, well, I had business…" Marlin begins, taking a pause to recall what else had happened. "…And after I got back, a loose cow tripped me and I spent some weeks recovering from concussion… Really strange coincidence that I was never around when all of those odd things with Daachan were happening."

"Yeah, I suppose…" Rock states. The group took a pause from speaking and focused on eating their snowcones for the time. When the majority of them were about half-finished, Kai chimed in.

"I wonder where Jack and Nami are right now…" he says, looking up to the brilliant blue sky again.

"We haven't seen them in a little while, have we?" Elli comments. "They must be very busy with something-or-other…"

"Too bad for them, I suppose," Jack chimes in, discarding his empty snowcone holder in a small wastebasket placed next to his seat, closing his eyes with hands placed comfortably behind his head. "They're missing an amazing day…"

-

Somewhere distantly south of either town, the ocean's pristine waters spread out everywhere within eyesight, the bright sunlight glimmering richly off of the clear, nearly crystaline blue ripples that stretched out into all surrounding horizon. Somewhere in this pleasant scene floated a gigantic, top-of-luxury cruise ship, merrily drifting its way through the waves and radiating with cheer, comfort, and relaxation.

Making sure to take in the full and uninterrupted sense of this was a drastically whitening red-head and her thick-moustached husband, both of which lay in beach chairs on the main deck, clad in swimwear and towels at their sides. Half-filled Cherry Pinks with lemons and small umbrellas sticking from the glass were rested on small tables right beside them, and shimmering dark sunglasses perched on their foreheads, for the time being. The man, the distinguished and royally content-looking Jack, nestled himself in his laying position and crossed his arms relaxedly over his chest.

"We're getting old… we're getting grey… we're uglying right up, but dammit we are _rich_…" he states triumphantly. Nami turns to him, smiling with faint smugness and looking as though she quite agreed.

"Over twenty years, it's been," she reminisces, placing her sunglasses over her eyes and looking upward again. "I would have never guessed that I would live out so many of my days in Forget-Me-Not Valley. At first sight, it's just another ugly hole of a village, but… there was actually a little more to it than that, I suppose."

"Twenty years you've been supposing," Jack says, laughing a bit to himself. "Listen, it's either got something to it or we've been hella duped, putting so much of our lives into the place."

"…Yes, you're right," Nami replies. "The Valley is definitely a very… special place. And I bet its story doesn't end with us."

"Yep, there's probably going to be a whole lot more strange things happening to it down the road…" Jack agrees, putting his arms to rest on the tanning chair's armrests. "But us, we've done our part in history. Now we get to let the kids carve their own bit of legacy."

"…Yeah," says Nami, though a bit let down by the idea. "Though a little more adventure wouldn't hurt…"

"Well, hey, who knows?" Jack reminds her. "We might not be important in the town's history anymore, but it doesn't mean ours is finished. We've got income, we're able, I'm sure we'll run into something, sometime."

"Maybe," Nami replies simply. After a few moments, though, she looks to Jack and raises her sunglasses slightly above her eyes. "…You know, it was a nice idea, but I almost feel bad for selling off everything in the farm that we didn't have when we married and taking most of the money."

"Oh, don't worry. I have it all planned," Jack states with a twinkle of wisdom in his usually burnt-out eye. "You see… We did this first. We are very disliked people to our son and daughter-in-law right now, but they can't do much of anything to us. Instead, they're gonna have a kid or two of their own, and once they retire they'll sell most everything off and enjoy a nice getaway at their kids' expense as well. Then those kids do the same thing to their own kids, and their own to their own, and so on. So, once a few generations pass, we're not the greedy parents anymore, but…"

"…The geniuses who started the tradition," Nami finishes, giving Jack an approving grin. The two chuckle to themselves a moment and sigh out a great breath of victory. "…You sure have your moments, Jack."

"Pirates!" calls a crew member on deck, who stared into the distance in alarm with a pair of binoculars over his eyes. Several more crew members and passangers echoed the cry and began scurrying off, heading down the nearby staircases into the ship's hull to secure their supplies or do some other sort of thing. Jack and Nami shift upward slightly and take a look over the ship's railing to see what the fuss was about, and surely enough there they were. A large, black-sailed ship with a skull-and-crossbones flag wavering in the breeze was making its way forth and a large mob of growling, shouting, sword-swinging and pistol-firing pirates were readily waiting on its main deck to board.

"…Hmph, somebody's behind the times," Nami says, rolling her eyes. Just then, one passenger in a mad panic passed near their chairs and knocked over Nami's glass of Cherry Pink. It fell on its side to the deck floor, is contents spilling out in a large wash. Nami narrowed her eyes. "…Dear, hold them off for the first while, I'm going to go change and get my knives."

"Of course," Jack replies, stretching and grumbling as he got up to a sitting position. Nami did the same, wearily getting to her feet and cracking her arm.

"…Ugh, I'm getting too old for this," she states, taking her towel and beginning to walk calmly to the deck's stairs.

"Well, think about it this way," Jack reminds her from behind. "Maybe this is the start of our own great adventure. It would be nice to have a ship like that."

"Maybe," Nami agrees, smiling a bit to herself and disappearing from view down the long flight. Jack looked to his right, finding his Rucksack sitting there, and opened it up. After a moment of rummaging, he found a spyglass and looked over to the approaching ship once more. He stood up slowly from where he sat and placed the spyglass over his eye, better spotting the details of these pursuers. There were about… fifty on deck at the time. Among them was a brown-haired man of stern maroon eyes and a one smug-looking one of dark skin with eyes sharp and blue. They only stood out since they weren't running around in preemptive fury and bashing their weapons together excitedly. Jack chuckled a little and shrugged to himself. Removing the eyepiece from his view, he closed up the spyglass and continued to look at the ship with smug expectancy.

"Poor pirates… They have no idea what they're up against."

-

Having been coaxed back into the house by a supportive yet equally-upset Kate, Miro sat on the bed - his bed - and looked at the flooring near his feet. Kate sat near him, looking basically the same as he did. Both let out a sigh, glanced toward one another, and slouched down on their hands in a deservedly depressed manner.

"…I guess we have to work hard now…" Kate mutters. "…Do you want a sandwich… or something?"

"No," Miro replies dully. "…Do you?"

"No. Come to think of it, we're both miserable, so if you don't, neither would I," Kate says observantly, stretching her back and getting to her feet with another sigh. "…Well, I'm going to see what needs doing first. The cow probably needs milking, that's my first bet."

With that, she proceeded to the door and opened it, walking through and letting it click shut behind her. Miro spent a few moments stewing over this situation again. There was hardly anything here anymore… Hardly any animals, plants, house space, _money_… His father knew how to teach a lesson. Though, in a sense, it was only fair… Jack had suffered a share of hardships trying to get this farm somewhere from a patch of dirt on a hill with a few buildings to a bustling income-machine. And, now that it was once again a patch of dirt, Jack would have no right to act like an old man and drawl on about how much tougher he had it when he was Miro's age. With that in mind, it was almost a decent idea… Still, to have not one bit of advantage for being the second generation, to not own one trinket of succession to prove that he wasn't just a young, bright farmer but the son of an old farmer and that it wasn't his fault that the place belonged to him… He didn't even have a housewarming gift…

At the notion of not having a housewarming gift, something occurs to Miro. Looking at the foot of his bed, he noticed his own Rucksack sitting there, and approached it with curiosity. Opening it and taking a few contents out, Miro spots the item he was looking for and gingerly takes it from the bag. That strange remote control with the single button in its middle rested in his hands. He remembers his father's words when he gave it to him. _Use it when you think you're ready_… Reasoning that he was as ready as he would ever be, Miro moved his thumb up the pad's smooth surface until it came upon the button, and pushed it.

At first, he noticed nothing. After a glance to the left and right and a pause to think of what it may be, he came to notice a quiet, consistent humming sound… distant, yet present… It sounded nearly mechanical, but something about the noise drew it away from being some sort of air conditioning… It was muffled, and nearly sounded… bubbling… That is when Miro noticed exactly where the sound was coming from. Below him. Below the bed. Beneath the concealled trapdoor under the mat near the bed… A smile slowly traced along his lips, and he looked down at the small controller, and then farther at the mat hiding the family's most profound secret.

"…Thanks, Dad."


End file.
